In Chapter 6 Shirky makes strong points on how collective work can make changes. Bringing as an example the scandal with the abusive Catholic priests, Shirky says that people getting in the groups for collaboration always worked in the past. The purpose for it would be to spread the word around and to organize a movements or protests. However it works much faster with the new web tools. The Vatican scandal only reached the wide audience and changes only happened in 2002 when internet was available to a larger population.

With the web the speed of sharing information and getting response became instant therefore sufficient. The video on charity to bring a drinking water to Africa is an example of the contemporary way to reach people, organize a movement and start a project either it a business task, advertising or charity event.

Our society always had a need to share information and communicate and today it became larger, faster and easier than ever. Therefore, with the growing networking artists should take an advantage to promote their work and get their ideas through. There are already a huge variety of social networking sites like coolhunting, etsy, artnets and etc. Either we use those places to share our portfolios or to start a production group it is important to get involved.

Broadcasting is not the only way to pass information from one source to another. Now you can be a broadcaster sitting at home. Podcast made it happen. These two medias are quite different between each other though.  In many cases the person who posts on podcast is not a professional announcer. In addition the content might be quite unfiltered and unimportant to the public. Therefore, the podcasting is lacking the big audience.  However, that podcast became a powerful social tool that lets a regular person  put a message on the air.

Does such media tool change the social behaviour?  Of course. The idea that your opinion can be heard by others puts many things in a perspective. Here we are looking at freedom of speech, the power of big news broadcasters that’s been questioned,  information filtering issues , politics of official broadcasters as well as interpretation of the same events and facts by an individual with a post on podcast.

After all said I am realizing how much information is generated and passed across on daily basis. The question is how it will be filtered in years to come once the majority will learn all the web tools and start using it at its full capacity. Where will it lead us once we open the box?

Commented: http://mickovic.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/the-social-implications-of-new-technology-audio-podcasting/#postcomment

In chapter 5 Shirky talks about sharing, collaboration and contribution. I want to compare networks like Facebook and Wikipedia where both are  well organized places where you are involved in exchanging information and collaboration.

Wikipedia, which was the subject of the reding is a great example of collaboration where people contribute information to online encyclopedia. Reading about  history of its creation and concept behind it I can  see the intentions of the website. It’s created by everybody and for everybody. To keep it well organized of course we need an order which is regulated by everyone. The idea is to contribute, to provide with trustworthy information and references and to receive that information when you are searching for it.

On another hand Facebook is an engine with contributing and giving away information as well. So what would be the major differences between the two? How are those donations are different.  Facebook is very subjective. It becomes your personal space where you write anything you feel like.  Even though there is a big interacting process yet the owner of the profile on Facebook has the right to choose what to wright about. Since you have this power of course you start writing about yourself as who you are, what you like and what you do. To compare with Wikipedia one of the main rules you can’t write about yourself.  Instead, it becomes communal contribution of the knowledge where the subject is chosen or refused collaboratively.

Personally, I think we need  both types of contributions. It is important to keep the division between them as well and not mixed it up together. For example, lets keep personal profiles and subjective opinions on things on facebook and lets keep wikipedia with well updated facts with reference materials.

Commented: http://kathleenmcgiveron.blogspot.com/2009/09/wikipedia-why-cant-i-be-on-socs-300.html

In Chapter 3 Shirky looks at professionalism and mass amateurization while describing their definition and placement in society. Shirky positions professionalism in category of occupation that is more than just a job. Professionals must follow specific standards and aim to fulfill expectations of general public as well as members of the same professional group. Shirky emphasizes that such interaction between the members of certain vocation that includes competition and recognition is significant element in defining professionalism. As example he is looking at journalists and photographers who work within certain rules and conditions. These professions organized in hierarchal system with enforced rules.

But the question is in what category people who post unlimited amount of news and images on internet should be placed. Are they professionals? Should the information that they publish be taken seriously. Among that Shirky brings up issue like copyability, quality and costs of production. Information that is generated and distributed by mass amateurization is fast, easily available and at low or no cost to produce and consume.

Having said that does it mean we will loose professional journalists and their place will be taken by bloggers who do not depend on publishers in writing and delivering information. It seems that society is dictating the rules in this matter. Things are expected to be delivered instant, widely distributed and at low cost. As example the existence of scribes that became a history was replaced with moveable type that was meeting needs of people for easy accessibility to literacy.

Being an art student and planning to make a living by selling original artwork I am facing some problems here. Would this fast growing online art market be playing in my favor? It seems that buying a digital copy of an image online is cheap and quick. Will this trend demolish my career as a painter and photographer since the originals might seem overpriced for the general public?

Commented on Kissty’s post:

http://melosoul.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-technologies-modes-of-production.html?showComment=1254023128479#c473055264315478458

Commented on Ashley’s post:

http://shiaili.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/socs-300-week-3/#comment-5

This weeks reading gave me a good outlook on the network and interaction online. Shirky is delivering clear points on the sharing information, cooperation and creating a group identity that develops an organized network. Such social grouping does not follow the standard rules of the tyical organization and the management concepts. The online interaction activity seems to be sorted and systemized by broad public interest of sharing, receiving and contributing.

When thinking of the example on collaboration , sharing  and creating a synchronized interaction the online tutorials come to my mind. In my opinion the free youtube or vimeo learning videos are been great sources of knowlegde on how to do and operate things. I find that unlimited range of the tips from how to work a certain software to how to get ride of the wine stain are a suffieciant way to get the answers on your questions without going far away from your computer. These days you can forget the idea of taking a photoshop class at school that requires paying a tutuition and a trip. In addition you might be unsatisfied with the results of the course, for instance I always was expecting from instructor to share more information with students. In the case of the online tutorials it seems that people who make them are working fully on delievering the subject. Although, I never done and shared any tutorials I think it’ll be a good experience. You get the power to organize, create and publish a project knowing that it will be a use and a help for somebody.  In my opinion this system appears to work for both the receivers and the ones who share.

Using internet is a source for personal and professional research the online tutorials seem as a useful sharing among the groups. But I guess, along the benefits there are a number of issues such a quality and accuracy of the learning material and etc.

It’s good to get back to my forgotton blog page.

I found the short video on Machine is Us/ing Us a quite original and sufficient.

Excited about the class.

After looking at work by Bruce Nauman I decided to change my original idea of playing with reverse speed for my video. I watched one of the Nauman’s videos many times and found myself hypnotized by the image and motion. It looks very simple: an image of a man’s mouth and neck that is captured by still video camera. The artist plays with an idea of communication on deep subconscious level.
Being inspired by the Nauman’s concept I decided to make an experiment. Having never done this before I found myself quite engaged in the project. I installed camera on tripod, sat against white background, set a lighting and let myself go (almost go). I began recording my interaction with different objects describing my feelings that got quite abstract.
Now having 30 min of footage I realized I kind of need to narrow it down. It’s editing time now and I am wishing myself good luck. The rain and snow that I am watching outside of my window are not very inspiring at this point…
Anyhow, I am looking forward to have done.

Inlak’esh Alaken show is an introduction to novelties and varieties of a new media. The event was organized to celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of Mátika Magazine and took place in the Interactive Digital centre at Emily Carr University in March. The exhibition consisted of three show cases and carried the idea of communication and new ways for expression of creativity using digital applications.

The show room had three large monitors. The video of live broadcasting between three cities was projected on one of the big screens showing simultaneous interaction between people of Vancouver, Los Angeles and Guadalajara. Video cameras were installed in the middle of the room filming and airing the images on the screen. The monitor had three windows showing action that was happening live in three cities. This type of digital interaction makes one realize the possibility of traveling in space. This installation reminded me of online video chat using Skype with the difference that the Inlak’esh Alaken video broadcast connects random strangers introducing variety of locations. Watching and being watched by people walking on the streets of LA and Guadalajara while being in Vancouver in the exactly same period of time shows the progression that digital world had done lately and see our society in a new perspective.

Along with the live broadcasting during the event viewers were introduced to painting on a digital screen. Graffitti Wall is a device that’s been developed by Tangible Interaction Design company and allows to create a digital drawings on a screen. Catching digital signals with a pen tool one is able to pick a colour from a pallette that is located on a side of the monitor and draw an image. Creating your own graffitti wall on a screen using new media technology was definitely entertaining and got positive responses among young crowd.

Another digital device demonstrated on the show was developed by Graffiti Research Lab New York and called Laser Tag V.02. This new media application was similar with the functions of Graffitti Wall but was more addressed for older public. A pen manipulates perceived laser light signals and transforms them in brushes and paint. Such signals can be projected on any surface on a big scale.

The Graffitti Wall and Laser Tag were demonstrated during the light installation event “Illuminate Yaletown” earlier this year. It was impressive to see how our quiet city got engaged in discovering the digital novelties and actively participating in art making seeing their drawings projected on the walls of the buildings of Yaletown.

I find that Inlak’esh Alaken show successfully presented the concepts of instant communication and creating art in public places using digital technology. It was a certainly educational and entertaining event.

I discovered a quite interesting author from Rio de Janeiro, Paulo Coehlo. Since he’s well known I would think a lot of you heard of him and read some of his novels.
I am starting to read “The Alchemist” . If anybody is interested to check this book out as well and share the thoughts after reading it’d be great.

http://www.paulocoelho.com.br/engl/index.html

(The Alchemist

When you want something, the whole Universe conspires to help you realize your dream.
Santiago, the hero of the novel, already forms part of a select gallery of illustrious characters and leads us through his story to experience a remarkable adventure.
“When I wrote The Alchemist, I was trying to understand the reason for the existence of life. Instead of writing a philosophical treatise, I decided to converse with the child inside my soul.
To my surprise, this child was living inside millions of people around the world. With this book I wanted to share with my readers the questions which, precisely because they don’t have an answer, make life a great adventure”. – Paulo Coelho)

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For the google map project I decided to make a visual by tracking my trips to different cities during my childhood. All the marked places are business trips of my father during his service in the military.
The family,which is me, my sis and my mom basically had to follow my father everywhere. The settling in each town/city did not last long . Before we could use to a new place we already had to take off and move to another military base.
This assignment encouraged me to take my time and outlined all the trips that I had to do with my family before I turned 12 y.o.
I was definitely surprised by the image at the end.