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I am a little lost on what to talk about. Throughout this course we have touched on multiple concepts that are symbiotic of our communications platforms and the economic forces of globalization. This melds into post-modern thought. I never really know how to trust that stuff, or even give it worth. I enjoyed the copyright section, even if it is just a grey box that is rather untouchable at the moment. Of course it makes more wonder if people even care about their own wants, over the wants of a corporation. When we started this class Wikipedia was black in protest over SOPA. I haven't seen much action for CISPA. 


This is important for planners. If we understood the complex conditions we are in and the ever evolving hyper reality engulfing ever higher rates of per capital productivity, we all may be a little hesitant to even turn on the computer we are staring at right now. Or would we: 

Guess it is time to buy gold.

Sources in order of Use:
http://www.globalization101.org/
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~abhishek/sokal.html
http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/morse-demonstrates-telegraph
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57422693-281/how-cispa-would-affect-you-faq/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBQf23EAyOI
http://www.monex.com/prods/gold.html

Postmodern Party Line

The Second Life class has come and gone. After the class I got to thinking about low tech alternatives to a chat room as elaborate as second life. The first old timey technology that came to my mind was the telephone and all the glory that was the party line. A party line can be seen as an early chat room, anyone could log on (pick up the receiver) and engage in conversation. The technology continues today, with a slightly more capital purpose. Way back before smart phones, limited access systems electrical talking machines were all the rage. These telephone machines are clearly older technology. In those photos you will see buttons, switches, knobs, wires, and even what appear to be a type of display using cathode ray tube technology. Today we have a fancy interface for chat rooms and communications in general, but are we really do anything new?


(Will Drakes post regarding "The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future" on facebook inspired this post)


Sources in order of use:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n92a6LOkSaU&feature=related
http://secondlife.com/
http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/telephone.htm
http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2010/01/early_telephone_operator_recal.html
http://blog.sfgate.com/thebigevent/2012/02/02/long-distance-fifty-years-of-telephones-in-san-francisco/#2821-14
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/the-jig-is-up-time-to-get-past-facebook-and-
invent-a-new-future/256046/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/330720543616565/

Second Life applications to First Life (real life)

Second Life like most other online role playing games have a variety of real world aspects incorporated into them.  However, in the case of second life any individual can alter or create worlds and platforms to promote ideas, educate on topics, and interact socially like actual life.  I used a Wikipedia (don’t hate) page as an outline for all effective uses of second life. These real life uses include:  Education(scholarly and job), arts, science, religion, embassies, competition, and relationships (digitally sexual and social).  Since a good amount of these overlap the actual uses of the game I tried to distill them down to certain categories.  These categories include:  Education, Expression, Group Cooperation, and Social Experiences.  Each of the original uses outlined by Wikipedia can fit into two or more categories but fit the best into only one. 

Education:

Education through second life can be divided into two types and they are scholarly, such as elementary or college, and employment or life skills, like emergency responders and community activists.  In the case of scholarly education various different institutions use second life.  This can be an effective way for students to meet and discuss topics in a digital way (example of crossing categories such as group cooperation).  As for employment and life skills second life provides training programs saving huge amounts of money that could have been spent on actual simulations of scenarios. 

Expression:

The ability for any user to build and create sets Second Life apart from almost every other online game like it.  Through this ability to create users have made various different art galleries of original works of art as well as digital duplicates of real works.  There is also many galleries devoted to natural areas to show the beauty of the areas online with people who could never others wise get a 3d view.  Furthermore, second life’s highly detailed editing mode and availability to any user allows for unbound creative works of art.  Also, on a side note social expression can call into the category.

Group Cooperation:

Cooperative work is becoming an increasingly important aspect in many dimensions of employment, government, and social constructs in our world today.  Second life provides a platform for that to occur in a 3d way miles and miles away from one another.  Whether it is a company or a real life social group that wishes to meet in second life all are welcome.  When related to planning this could be a particularly useful tool for citizen participation.  A town council meeting could be held via second life where everyone could have their own avatar and even the town could be recreated.  This may be a long way away since it is a relatively informal game and many people may not be technologically savy creating bias. 

Social Experiences:

One of the major reasons online games like second life are so popular in comparison to games off the internet is the availability for social interactions.  Making friends you would never meet in real life who may be from exotic places and have interesting perspectives.  In second life various people and groups have created clubs and bars and social places to interact.  There are even the possibility of relationships and marriages in second life.  The addition of age verification and “adult” features to second life came with increased media attention yet seemed to be preferred by some users.  It was the cap to the amount of real life social interaction you can have in second life.  

Horizon Report: What we have encountered so far

New Media Consortium’s Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education provides insight into the emerging technologies relating to education.  I decided to write a report on how we all have most likely interfaced with the technologies chosen for the Horizon Report.  The Horizon Report also provides the time likely that it will take for each learning tool to be fully part of the educational realm.  As for the technology that is four to five years away I cannot write on because it is still in stages of development and very little information is able to be found on the internet.  Furthermore, here are some of the technologies we interface with every day.   

MOBILE APPS

I only recently got a smart phone and still have not figured out everything I can do with it.  Even though I am new to mobile apps the potential is enormous.  With apps like Adobe reader a student can access and read pdf files in almost any situation.  Mobile apps continue to help students arrange courses and syllabi to keep up with classes, provide platforms to view flashcards and memorizing techniques, and even order textbooks for courses they are taking that semester.  Furthermore, this being the rise of a booming industry where creatively turning tasks and tools into mini computer programs that generally sell for ninety nine cents there is unlimited potential.

 

TABLET COMPUTERS

Tablet computers were prominent in higher learning institutions since the ipad hit the market.  The conversion from laptops to tablets though has not been particularly fast or steady until recently.  Paired with the increase in applications available for tablets and the variability in the market has propelled the frequency of use very high as lately.  There have been various studies saying that tablet use increased from 7 to 25 percent among college students.  I myself have seen similar results in my classes as well as observed how easy it can be to take notes, read documents, and use apps to collaborate and create interactive learning. 

GAME-BASED LEARNING

Other than the guest lectures we have had in our class about game based learning from professor Zahm at Virginia Tech I have not experienced much of the sort.  This is in line with the horizon reports prediction that Game-Based Learning will not be adapted for two to three years.  Colleges across the countries have developed programs to pursue initiatives relating to Game-Based learning such as Amherst and Drexel.  I myself have dabbled in various video games throughout my entire life and can testify to its effects.  I am not particularly competitive but games force you to try and try again till you get it right a valuable aspect for education.  Although I could see this more actively applied to younger age groups colleges could create the programs that are used for the younger age groups. 

Second Life, Anonymity, and Anomie

Weird one, right? To being, I am not able to log on to Second Life. This is for Wednesday's class. I was able to sign up as SuperJackWhitmore, as what I believe to be in the guise of a 60's VW Beetle. I plan to turn it into Herbie from the Disney motion picture "The Love Bug" featuring Dean Jones. This assumes that I can actually get onto Second Life.

You see I have a program on my computer called Peer Block. I don't know what other people use it for, but it is interesting to see other ip addresses that are pinging you. CNN goes nuts, Fox News doesn't, very strange. What is really strange was how Second Life made Peer Block go bananas. I try to log on and I get to a screen known on the internet as the Regional Hand Shake, or The Reginald Hand Shake. The Regional Hand Shake looks like this:

And it does this:

This is happening on a Windows 7, 64 bit machine. Meanwhile, Peer Block is doing this:

The wild thing is that I have it set up so Linden Lab (Second Life) IP's can go through this wall permanently, but still no dice. So many IP's, Someone does not like Linden Lab. This is a known issue. It got me thinking though.

Second Life and other virtual public/private spheres (things like public commons, community engagement, even private material), do not allow for the user to be truly anonymous. This could negate a function of anomie. Louis Wirth's 1938 “Urbanism as a Way of Life,” makes a case for the ability of the city or urban area to move the individual so far out of the rural context of community, that their lives are now fundamentally changed as a result. For Wirth, this change leads to Durkheim's notions of anomie. What does that mean?

It means that because community becomes so diminished in an urban area, social deterioration can occur. The reason why is due to the individual no longer having contact with a distinct community. Imagine living in a farm community back in the nineteenth century compared to a city. This relates to being anonymous in real life. In a city you don't interact with people the same way as in tight knit communities, it is more commercial transactions than conversations. People don't have to know who you are in the city for you to survive, no so much in small communities (except maybe survivalists, and those with lots of money).

With Second Life requiring the user identify themselves (at least to some extent), I am thinking it would encourage some kind of restraint on the user. Is restraint appropriate, especially for participation purposes? Imaging a plan meeting. Wouldn't it change user responses in such a way that the people who actually engage with the physical outcome, a building or some other kind of real property, may be overruled by people who fundamentally aren't engaged with the same level of community? Something seems flawed.

Sources in order of use:
http://secondlife.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064603/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0427894/
http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Second-Life-Server/Region-handshake/td-p/988977
http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Account/no-regional-hand-shake/qaq-p/1343355
http://forums.peerblock.com/read.php?3,5246
http://sociology.socialsciencedictionary.com/Sociology-Dictionary/ANOMIE
http://periplurban.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/wirth_urbanismasawayoflife.pdf OR:
Wirth, L. (1938). Urbanism as a Way of Life. American Journal of Sociology,44(1), 1-24.

The Violent Video Game Debate

In today's society, violent video games are the norm. In fact the more violent the game, the larger the monetary return for the company. But what is it doing to our kids? Are they responding to this violence like it is a normal everyday thing or do they still know that it isn't reality?

In 2008, 97% of children ages 12-17 played video games and 10 of the top 20 best-selling games contained violence. But what do these numbers mean? Some people say that violence in video games keeps violence down in real life. But I'm not so sure, what if the violence just gives people ideas that they never would have thought of before. I know in most of these games if you want something, you take it by force, it's no longer bargaining and paying.

On article from NPR.org breaks down the violent video game argument into two parts. On one side, the article says that many researchers believe that violent video games desensitize young people and make them harsh and mean. On the other side, the researchers found the same thing however interpreted the desensitization as trivial compared to the senseless acts that happen everyday in modern society. In an article from CNN, a study was done comparing video game violence to actual violence and again it was increased, even compared to children that were "violent" before the study. I don't know about you, but that tells me that there is a correlation between the two. Yes, correlation does not imply causation, however I think in this case, the correlation shows that violent video games could be a major cause of violence.

Let's be honest, this is a multi-billion dollar industry, no one can stop the violence in these video games expect maybe the Supreme Court. And we've seen them strike down California's ban on violent video games as a violation of free-speech. It seems hopeless, however, we still have a say on the matter in our own homes. I know if I were a parent, I wouldn't let my children shoot people, steal cars, or massacre whole cities even if it were just a video game. We put rating on movies to keep children from seeing things like this, but it is so easy to get around ratings with video games. Is anyone even regulating it?

Links in Order of Use:

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/videogame/top-10-most-violent-video-games.html

http://videogames.procon.org/

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/07/137660609/its-a-duel-how-do-violent-video-games-affect-kids

http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/children_and_video_games_playing_with_violence

http://articles.cnn.com/2008-11-03/health/healthmag.violent.video.kids_1_violent-video-video-games-game-genres?_s=PM:HEALTH

Participatory Chinatown

Participatory Chinatown is a 3D game designed to assist with Boston's Comprehensive Planning process. I relate the public school networked Oregon Trail sessions. Participatory Chinatown allows the user to play a game of interacting with members of their community. The user picks an avatar and encounters hurdles that engage the user into provide community participation for comment on future development. The project was funded by the Macarthur Foundation at a cost of $170,000. Here is a video of game play:

Civic participation is one of the hallmarks of democracy, and our form of governance. Methods that would increase civic participation are beneficial, but costs should be examined to determine feasibility. Participatory Chinatown allows a community conversation to happen by proxy. by expanding that proxy, planners may revive more beneficial comment, at a lower cost.

I have to wonder why we need this proxy.

Soues in order of use:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA5sz-ymv6k&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.participatorychinatown.org/
http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/participatory-chinatown/
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/05/06/chinatown_the_video_game/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDuSVXC7tRM&feature=related