What to post, what to post...
For the first 30 minutes or so, as a class we are going over the chapters and what we found to be important.
For chapter 6 we are talking about feedback loops and the war effort. We are talking about the idea of gated communities, the rules and regulations associated with these communities seem ridiculous but people buy into it and want to live there. The idea of surveillance is what is on hand. This iWar is showing how this war is the first of the technological age and is a scary thing to face.
Chapter 7 is about more of a political aspect. If the politicians have access to companies databases, then they can target people for their individual needs and wants. Then politicians would not actually need to have a stand on and issue, since people will just be hearing what they want. It kills creativity and seems to tie back into Lanier.
Its hard to say whether real time blogging is helpful or harmful. I think it benefits people in different ways. We are all talking about the chapters and frantically writing as we go and it helps hearing everyone's points and thoughts about the topic at hand. It is good hearing what everyone has to say and I think that it could help some, while harm others. I am sort of on the fence about it. It was a very interesting way of having class and I think that it can work from time to time but not every single day.
Chapter 7 is about more of a political aspect. If the politicians have access to companies databases, then they can target people for their individual needs and wants. Then politicians would not actually need to have a stand on and issue, since people will just be hearing what they want. It kills creativity and seems to tie back into Lanier.
ReplyDelete---> Allowing for better distribution of basic needs.
---> Issues would be more complex because of more tangible information.
---> No "stand" is needed, because facts are available to all politicians.
---> If facts are available then creative solutions can be formed.
interesting that you saw some advantages in real time blogging--a number of folks were more critical about it. I wonder if it would be different with Twitter or chat. I also wonder whether these kinds of layered media experiments are ill-suited for small classes at HWS. That is, they could make sense in giant 300 person lectures where no one ever know what others are thinking. Or they could make sense in cities or nationally or internationally, but in all these instances, the goal is to try to connect people and hear others' voices; in a small class, we already have that.
ReplyDeleteI think a chat would suit discussion better than blogs; the blog format requires refreshes and hunting for content on multiple different individual island-pages and is distracting as a form of collaborative conversation unless held to one post and its accompanying comment stream, but even then it requires refresh and the asynchronousness (did i make this word up?) of the discussion could lead to more confusion than a chat might. Not sure if chat is a good idea, but better in this case, perhaps.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the blogs require labor, but in looking through the book one is finding meaningful information to discuss. There has to be a drive on the bloggers part to comment on others, and others to comment back to keep the network alive.
ReplyDeleteChats would be more stimulating to the user, because of the instantaneity of the conversion. But chats allow for irrelevant information to enter the discussion, when one does not take the time to look up a quote and instead asks what are you doing this weekend?
Chats however allow someone to directly ask Brain a question. While Blogs only allow me to ask questions to myself and wait for someone to find them. But that is why we have facebook to allow for that instant and sometime argumentative communications to take place outside of the blog.
I was a little critical in my discussion with Professor Dean yesterday, but now that I see we are getting somewhere through these comments, I am much more satisfied with the blogs. I even just enjoy being able to post outlines or my midterm exam on the blog allowing anyone in the class to read it. However, I do not think many have interest, but my posts are waiting as are yours.
I think that chat would have been much more beneficial to everyone
ReplyDelete