Connection to the Internet

Not about how slow it may be, but rather if it is there. Being in the modern day world, we are all immersed in the internet, using it to do research, connect with friends, blog.  But it is an interesting thought to take a step back and think about just how complicated somethings can be.

My generation, at least in my home town, was introduced to the computer officially in the 6th grade.  We would start doing various projects, learning how to use the internet, learning how to save on a 3.5in floppy disk.  Now, I have heard stories of kindergartners needing to have preceding knowledge of how a computer works and how to access the internet before they enter school.

PewInternet recently did a study a couple years ago about the "literacy" of adults regarding computer usage, specifically using broadband or dial-up.  I'm not going to go into the details too much, a lot of it though looked at how different generations used the internet.  Going back to how kids now a days are using computers so early, they will be that much more literate with it than any older generation.  Look at the gap between a what college student knows, and the average citizen. One particular image on page 36 of the report, showed that as the age increased, the percentage of people who were "non-internet users" increased.  I would not be surprised if in a decade every toddler will know how to run a MATLab simulation in their freetime.

YouTube as a Digital Media Artifact

YouTube is an interesting artifact.  Anyone can create an account and upload or watch videos.  The videos can range to anything from documentaries, short animations, or even clips from blockbuster movies.  It allows for the sharing of personal ideas and beliefs and critical knowledge.  It’s essentially an encyclopedia that takes advantage of the eyes and ears to convey its contents.  It is an important part of our current society, allowing a new level of connection.  You can watch narrated videos of the same person regularly and you start to feel a connection with them that they are a friend you have never met.

Let's take a step back and ask just what YouTube exactly is.  USA Today argues that perhaps it was inspired by the picture sharing site such as Flicker, but with videos instead.  It is a means of people to share their experiences, but now with videos.  This is useful since in the same time period YouTube was made in 2005, videos on phones became rather popular.  YouTube also was different than the other video sites at the time in that it was free, not charging a monthly fee.  It was a way for anyone to upload videos, a community that consisted of everyone who could afford a computer and a camera of some sort.  USA Today continues, saying that with the embedding tool, it was possible for people to make video blogs.

Another side of YouTube is the monetization, allowing for anyone who can make videos that people want to watch, get paid to make those videos.  The settings in YouTube directly mention this as an option, the up-loaders can decide if they want YouTube to display ads during their videos, and if they themselves want to get some of the income from the ads. This provides for a large audience as a community.  You can have those who just want to make a single short video about something they love, professors posting videos, or gamers doing walk throughs of their favorite games every week.  Chances are, if there is something you want to see, it is probably on YouTube.

Much of the content on YouTube is digital media, with computer generated graphics and modularity of the images.  The videos themselves can be duplicated and embedded indefinitely.  All these are qualities given by Manovich (Language), for what makes up the "New Media".  The YouTube logo can be seen as a watermark in the bottom of every embedded video, and each channel on YouTube has the same default layout.  This doesn't mean that all the content on YouTube is digital media, but the site itself, is.  Manovich gives other qualifications for digital media as well.  One is that it must fulfill an automated process.  YouTube, is automated.  Scripts have been written so that a person can upload a video and they don't have to wait for a staff member to view it, confirm it, and manually post it to the site.  YouTube says that it has more than 72 hours of video uploaded every minute.  With that much content going, it would be near impossible to have the site function without it being an automated process.

In the book, "The Medium is the MASSAGE" by Marshall Mcluhan and Quentin Fiore, they argue that certain parts of our society become extensions of our selves.  YouTube has done this,  if someone starts to have a memory of some movie, or place, someone (depending on the generation) will say look it up on YouTube.  It is a tool that we come to expect to have on hand.  Many people may go without cable anymore, opting for YouTube where they just have to watch short commercials every 15 minutes or so, and the price of viewing is part of their internet bill.  Our society is making it easier to access these videos too.  Tablets and phones allow people to view videos on YouTube from anywhere they can find an internet signal.  Just like how Wikipedia has become an extension of our mind as a universal free encyclopedia, YouTube has become a near endless library of videos we can access at anytime.  This idea of all this information is very similar to the "Memex" thought of by Vannevar Bush (As We May Think), where pictures were stored.  I'm sure if he had anticipated motion pictures, he would have envisioned them being stored on the Memex.

Part of the reason why YouTube is so big, is the ease of use.  To upload a video, all a user has to do is have an account on the site, and have the video accessible by the computer, and click a button.  There is no programming knowledge necessary, no experience, no tricks.  In some cases, it is possible to have software automatically upload videos to YouTube.  Another site called TwitchTV, has a service which will first save any recorded video, including live stream, and once the video is finished, it will upload to a connected YouTube account.

YouTube is much more than a place to post videos.  It is a place to display your interests.  It has an entire community where users can subscribe to video blogs or learn more about a topic of their choice.  It is in a sense, the start of a new era.  Now it is possible for videos from around the world, or above (Space Rip) it, to be shared within minutes of its filming.  It brings our world together in a way that would have never been possible a decade and a half ago.  YouTube is an extension of our selves now, without it, an entire culture would be lost.

Works Cited

1.      "As We May Think." The Atlantic. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2012. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/4/?single_page=true>.

2.      "The Language of New Media (Leonardo Books) [Paperback]." The Language of New Media (Leonardo Books): Lev Manovich: 9780262632553: Amazon.com: Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2012. <http://www.amazon.com/The-Language-Media-Leonardo-Books/dp/0262632551>.

3.      McLuhan, Marshall, and Quentin Fiore. The Medium Is the Massage. New York: Random House, 1967. Print.

4.      SpaceRip. "The View from Space - Countries and Coastlines." YouTube. YouTube, 21 Dec. 2011. Web. 26 Sept. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPyl1LgNtoQ>.

5.      "Twitch Makes Playing Games More Fun." Twitch. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2012.

6.      USA Today. Gannett, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2012. <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2005-11-21-video-websites_x.htm>.

7.      YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/>.

Digital Media Artifact - Draft

YouTube is an interesting artifact.  Anyone can create an account and upload or watch videos.  The videos can range to anything from documentaries, short animations, or even clips from blockbuster movies.  It allows for the sharing of personal ideas and beliefs and critical knowledge.  Its essentially an encyclopedia that takes advantage of the eyes and ears to convey its contents.  It is an important part of our current society, allowing a new level of connection.  You can watch narrated videos of the same person regularly and you start to feel a connection with them that they are a friend you have never met.

Let's take a step back and ask just what YouTube exactly is.  USA Today argues that perhaps it was inspired by the picture sharing site such as Flicker, but with videos instead.  It is a means of people to share their experiences, but now with videos.  This is useful since in the same time period YouTube was made in 2005, videos on phones became rather popular.  YouTube also was different than the other video sites at the time in that it was free, not charging a monthly fee.  It was a way for anyone to upload videos, a community that consisted of everyone who could afford a computer and a camera of some sort.  USA Today continues, saying that with the embedding tool, it was possible for people to make video blogs.

Another side of YouTube is the monetization, allowing for anyone who can make videos that people want to watch, get paid to make those videos.  The settings in YouTube directly mention this as an option, the up-loaders can decide if they want YouTube to display ads during their videos, and if they themselves want to get some of the income from the ads. This provides for a large audience as a community.  You can have those who just want to make a single short video about something they love, professors posting videos, or gamers doing walk throughs of their favorite games every week.  Chances are, if there is something you want to see, it is probably on YouTube.

Much of the content on YouTube is digital media, with computer generated graphics and modularity of the images.  The videos themselves can be duplicated and embedded indefinitely.  All these are qualities given by Manovich, for what makes up the "New Media".  The YouTube logo can be seen as a watermark in the bottom of every embedded video, and each channel on YouTube has the same default layout.  This doesn't mean that all the content on YouTube is digital media, but the site itself, is.  Manovich gives other qualifications for digital media as well.  One is that it must fulfill an automated process.  YouTube, is automated.  Scripts have been written so that a person can upload a video and they don't have to wait for a staff member to view it, confirm it, and manually post it to the site.  YouTube says that it has more than 72 hours of video uploaded every minute.  With that much content going, it would be near impossible to have the site function without it being an automated process.

In the book, "The Medium is the MASSAGE" by Marshall Mcluhan and Quentin Fiore, they argue that certain parts of our society become extensions of our selves.  YouTube has done this,  if someone starts to have a memory of some movie, or place, someone (depending on the generation) will say look it up on YouTube.  It is a tool that we come to expect to have on hand.  Many people may go without cable anymore, opting for YouTube where they just have to watch short commercials every 15 minutes or so, and the price of viewing is part of their internet bill.  Our society is making it easier to access these videos too.  Tablets and phones allow people to view videos on YouTube from anywhere they can find an internet signal.  Just like how Wikipedia has become an extension of our mind as a universal free encyclopedia, YouTube has become a near endless library of videos we can access at anytime.  This idea of all this information is very similar to the "Memex" thought of by Vannevar Bush, where pictures were stored.  I'm sure if he had anticipated motion pictures, he would have envisioned them being stored on the Memex.

Part of the reason why YouTube is so big, is the ease of use.  To upload a video, all a user has to do is have an account on the site, and have the video accessible by the computer, and click a button.  There is no programming knowledge necessary, no experience, no tricks.  In some cases, it is possible to have software automatically upload videos to YouTube.  Another site called TwitchTV, has a service which will first save any recorded video, including live stream, and once the video is finished, it will upload to a connected YouTube account.

YouTube is much more than a place to post videos.  It is a place to display your interests.  It has an entire community where users can subscribe to video blogs or learn more about a topic of their choice.  It is in a sense, the start of a new era.  Now it is possible for videos from around the world, or above it, to be shared within minutes of its filming.  It brings our world together in a way that would have never been possible a decade and a half ago.  YouTube is an extension of our selves now, without it, an entire culture would be lost.

"Video Websites pop-up, Invite Posting" - USA Today
"What is New Media?" - Manovich
"The Medium is the MASSAGE" - Mcluhan, Fiore
"As We May Think" - Vannevar Bush
YouTube
TwitchTV

"The medium is the MASSAGE, An inventory of effects"

So it may be that it is too late, it may be that this is just way above me, but this book by Marshall McLuhan was like nothing I've read before.  I can say that with certainty.  I found myself getting distracted with each turn of the page, and what ever I just read on the last page was kicked out with the large amounts of sensory input.  I found myself particularly drawn to a page in which the text was written on it mirrored, so to read it you had to either be incredibly skilled at reading backwards, or have a mirror.  After trying at the latter  for a couple minutes i realized i had a mirror available.  I couldn't tell you what it said unless I had the book right in front of me. 

"Compartmentalization of occupations and interests bring about a separation of that mode of activity commonly called 'practice' from insight, of imagination from executive, 'doing'.  Each of these activities is then assigned its own place in which it must abide.  Those who write the anatomy of experience then suppose that these divisions inhere in the very constitution of human nature." - John Dewey.

Honestly I am not sure why this needed to be mirrored, it is already rather thought provoking.  As far as I can understand, Man compartmentalizes imagination and procedure, and then believes that this compartmentalization is human nature. 

At this point I'm not really sure what is going on in this book, and if there is or is not supposed to be connections between the images and the text which is delivered via those images.  It makes you think in ways that our society (At least mine) has not trained us to.  Images that will bring about various emotional combinations that have never been active.

Jean Baudrillard

I won't lie, this piece by Jean Baudrillard from his book "Simulacra & Simulation", was rather interesting, and i did not fully understand much of it.  The way I best understood a small bit of it was in reference to the movie "The Matrix", and how it combines reality and simulation.  Where a mask is put over your head, preventing you from seeing the truth.

The principle of the piece is differentiating between simulation and reality.  What makes a simulation a simulation, and what are the different variations of simulation.  He lists fours different scenarios.

1. Reflection based on reality
2. Perversion of basic reality
3. Masks the absence of a basic reality
4. No relation to reality, is a simulation

He goes into examples of theme parks, and how they can immerse customers into a false world that is simply a simulation, and then into political masks such as Watergate.

Much of the rest of this is beyond me without spending an entire week reviewing the piece.  Although I don't understand much other than the simple premise and examples, this is a very interesting piece that deserves a read.

Piece from "Simulacra and Simulations"

Always Already New - Gitelman

This piece by Lisa Gitelman is a rather interesting one.  For something that I use as often as I do (multiple times a day), I never stopped to ask, what exactly is the history of the internet and all the various components of it.  I knew there were specific ways of formatting for the web, but this article goes into great detail of how the internet came to it's current state.  As you read this, there are probably at least 20 links to various places on the internet, either related to Blogger, or personal links of your favorite sites in your tool bar.  When the internet was first created, that tool bar was much less complicated, it would have consisted of a URL bar, and maybe a few file options.  Now we have different browsers, each of which can be customized to your own preferences.

The internet as a whole is a rather interesting piece of work. It can be added to by anyone, changed (certain pages at least) by anyone.  And in our era, probably stores a copy of almost every form of media.  If there is something you want to know, it's on the web.  The original idea for the internet really comes from Vannevar Bush's Memex (which is mentioned in a recent blog post of mine and also here.).

It's amazing to think about how far the internet has come since its creation only a few decades ago.  Where will it be in a few more? It is getting more and more advanced holding more information.  I have trouble imagining what would come next.  We already have near instant communication, a large encyclopedia, and almost any movie or song you could want.

As we may think - Vannevar Bush

When reading this piece by Bush, I sat in amazement at the predictions being made for the future.  Particularly the "walnut" camera.  I enjoy information regarding space and recently NASA has sent a new rover to the surface of Mars.  On this rover, are 17 different cameras (http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/rover/eyesandother/ ) that help it see.  The rover itself is less than 10 feet long, wide and high.  Some of these cameras are probably about the size of a walnut or maybe even smaller.  Less than a couple minutes after the rover landed on Mars, an image was sent back and displayed in a relatively good resolution.  This is only 60 or so years after Bush's prediction.  Several of his other predictions, including dry photography, also are close to true today.

I couldn't stop reading this article because of the desire to see what else he predicted correctly or close too; credit cards, tablets, wikipedia.  The list goes on, it is hard to believe that this was written in 1945 due to the accuracy of the claims.

I enjoy the fantastical way in which he imagines all these devices in the future similar to a dreaming child.  He paints a picture in your mind of what it will look like and how life will be different.  I can only imagine that in 1945 not many other imagined his dreams would ever exist.  No one would believe we would possess that technology.  Before 1945, the space race had not started, computers took up large rooms and were only capable of simple tasks, and photography was a long tedious process.

This makes you wonder about some of the dream people have today and if they will come true just as Bush's had.  A question to ask yourself is "what will computers be like in 67 years?".


"As We May Think" - Vannevar Bush

What is New Media? - Manovich

This piece seemed to have a lot of unnecessary information in it.  Perhaps it is because of my background in dealing with some of the artifacts that were being talked about, but his criteria for "new media"; numerical representation, modularity, automation, etc., seemed obvious and not needing of such a long description, although worth mentioning.

Manovich then continues into talking about "data" and "property".  I find this means of compartmentalizing rather useful in describing media and relations to one another.  Someone who has never heard of the brand of a soda for instance, could understand that the main product is the soda, not the sign advertising it.  However again, I feel that the author used too many examples to make his point and could have been more concise with the information.

A little later, Manovich goes into the argument of "freedom" of variables for cultural objects and media.  On side says that freedom give the responsibility of choice to the user, and makes it their own.  The other side says that perhaps the freedom would hinder or slow down the use of the media.  Not once in this section is the compromise mentioned.  What if society has the choice of if they want the freedom on their private media.  If it is a desktop on a private account on a computer, have a default setting, that can be changed.  I wish the author would have gone into this area a little, it is after all how most of western culture operates now with respect to digital media.

Overall, I find that this piece lacks conciseness, for one of two reasons.  First, the author may have been simplifying his points so that the information could get across easier, in which case I would like to know who the original article was intended for, or second, the author does not actually know the information as well as he is suggesting.  It is an informative piece, but could become more interesting for an audience who knows computers had it been refined a little more.

Casting Minecraft

A while back, my roommate and I decided that we wanted to start casting while we played through some custom maps for the oh so popular game "Minecraft". You hear people talking about how you can make money off the advertisements and get social recognition for your work and become a celebrity, but you have to wonder how many of those people actually achieve what they hope. I can only name a dozen or so popular casters for the Game Minecraft. That means either not many people try casting, or the more likely case is that they never gain the popularity they hope for.

When we started casting, we looked at it and decided "it's just for fun". We don't hope to make money, we do it because it adds an element to the experience. Sure playing maps made by others is fun, that's why the map makers make the maps.  They don't make them to make money, they volunteer their time.  When it comes to casters, its not as clear.  The map makers openly volunteer to make a map knowing they wont necessarily be paid, but the casters can be viewed as volunteers of entertainment, or actors.  So how do you tell?  Are they entertaining hundreds or thousands of viewers? Is it their content entertaining them or is it the map (made by someone else usually)? I figure the group might weed itself off. Perhaps the viewers will only watch the casters who are actually acting, putting on a good show.  The ones just going through the motions probably won't last.  You don't see too many of them around. Most casters that have thousands of subscribers make their shows unique from others, adding their personalities in.  What they say regularly becomes ingrained in the viewers head and their tales pull them back wanting to see what they do next.  Anyone could try to play through a map, why watch someone else play it, unless your watching for the caster.

I've found I hardly care what the casters I watch are playing, I'm just interested in listening to their "broadcast".  And the ones who seem to genuinely enjoy casting for the sake of it, are more entertaining.  They don't care how many viewers or money they get, just that they can make a few people smile.