Internet of Things

THE FUTURE... and beyond

           The very meaning of media and communications has been altered so drastically in the new century that it is becoming difficult to define each term. 

           We have developed the freedom and ability to produce, to adapt and to innovate technology but will that be enough to maintain our societies and their cultures. 

          The most pointed message that Eastlings (2011) portrays in her Internet of Things reading is that the “computer has escaped the box”. In many ways this is true, our virtual and physical worlds are becoming so closely linked that soon they may be inseparable. Tasks such as shopping, work, socialising and education can now only be undertaken by a virtual persona.

           In many ways I have major problems with the idea that technology is furthering our society in absolutely every aspect. While it has provided a backbone for many medical, scientific and technical breakthroughs, it has not necessarily added to the cultural progression of our lives. Although the irony of writing this on a laptop whilst listening to my iPod as FaceBook lies open on my screen does not go unnoticed.

           Language itself is decreasing to the point that societies today use fewer words then that of Shakespeare’s time (Mirvis, P. H., Sales, A. L. and Hackett, E. J. (2006)). Furthermore basic literacy skills are deteriorating, such as spelling, due to the reliance on computer based writing programs. (Mirvis, P. H., Sales, A. L. and Hackett, E. J. (2006))

           Through my own observations I have also seen a decrease in verbal communication skills, communicating through email is now an acceptable form of official communication. Even within this university, students are encouraged to email professors with their questions rather then come to see them in person. 

 
           Furthermore our physical identities are so closely linked to that of our virtual ones that distinguishing between the two is becoming impossible. While this may have its benefits I feel that the world was meant to be lived in not just virtually experienced.  

           I don’t know about anybody else but I feel that we need to be continuously weary of our reliance on technology. The decrease in language and control of our personal identities is all feeling a little too George Orwell’s 1984 to me. 

References

Keller Easterling (2011) ‘An Internet of Things’, e-flux journal, <http://www.e-flux.com/journal/an-internet-of-things/>

Mirvis, P. H., Sales, A. L. and Hackett, E. J. (2006), The implementation and adoption of new technology in organizations: The impact on work, people, and culture. Hum. Resour. Manage., 30: 113–139. doi: 10.1002/hrm.3930300107

Open Science

              The constant changing world that is the media is greatly influencing other parts of communities. Despite the protests of many scientists, media technologies have indeed effected and influenced science in many ways, shapes and forms. The advancement of technologies has enabled research findings to become widespread and diversity has increased. 

             Furthermore interest with scientific findings has reached the general public’s radar more so then ever imaginable. There is a new movement for scientists to openly publish all of their research findings and the process of their experiments (Willbanks, 2011).   

            Some scientists have already adopted an open science mind set with websites such as PLoS, GlazyZoo and ResearchGate being set up to facilitate discussions (Thomas, 2012). This has enabled the progression of many scientific collaborations that would otherwise be inpossible.

However not all scientists are on board with releasing their findings into the general public domain as they believe that this is not how findings should be presented.

           All variations of change within an established field have their pros and cons. Pisani (2011) discusses how “sharing data will change the way medical science works and speed up the discovery of new cures” (Pisani E, 2011). This idea of sharing is especially vital in the medical fields as one rare case can possibly save a life half way around the world. Similarly doctors and medical professionals can learn from methods that aren't as effective as others. This progression of medical communication will prove to speed up the development of treatments and procedures across the world.

           Pisani (2011) also addresses the downside to open communication between scientists; the validity of researchers can come into question if all mistakes and neutral results are made public. Also the issue of copyright of findings comes into question as more findings can be published and copied. Another issue that has risen is that forums are coming about that are publishing non-peer reviewed articles that are being taken as fact by the general population. 

          This influx of unreliable information can be seen in one of the biggest scientific debate that is currently dominating the media, that of climate change or global warming. The climate change debate is fuelled by information that is not scientifically proven being published and debated online. This movement heightens the intensity of an important situation but for all the wrong reasons. Rather than focusing on the scientifically proven data about the issue people are choosing to listen to what they already believe as fact. This can and has cause great issues for governments and societies to activate change. 

          This widespread knowledge leads to social change, enhanced by media technologies science can and will have a greater influence on innovative movements. However as with all parts of life, open science most understand that with great power comes great responsibility.

References

Lin, Thomas (2012) ‘Cracking Open the Scientific Process’, The New York Times, January 16, 2012 <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/science/open-science-challenges-journal-tradition-with-web-collaboration.html?_r=4&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all> 

Pisani, Elizabeth (2011) ‘Medical science will benefit from the research of crowds’, The Guardian, January 11, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/11/medical-research-data-sharing> 

Wilbanks, John (2011) ‘On Science Publishing’, Seed, <http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/on_science_publishing> 

Collaboration

Protests of a Different Kind

            This week the issues revolving around the networks and micro politics within social organisations were raised. The collaboration between communities and new media entities is extending cultural awareness and social movements.

            The fact that communities are greatly impacted and reliant on new media is no longer a disputable claim. Without new media social organizations and movements would not be nearly as effective or influential. A recent example of this is the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City. This movement spread rapidly through the use of social media. The corresponding media exposure that the social media ensured enabled the message to be heard throughout the world and resonated with people from all walks of life. 

           As expressed in the Coalition of the Willing (2010) blog protests have changed with the introduction of new technologies. As the current generation of protesters i.e. Generation Y, have grown up in a technologically saturated world, their techniques of staging a protest and getting their view across has developed. 

            The Coalition of the Willing’s (2010) video shows an example of how a revolutionary protest in the 1960’s differs from the modern day movements. These former protests were arrange and executed at a specific time and place whereas modern protests are able to take place simultaneously across the globe with people from all walks of life participating. (Manning, E, 2009). Manning (2009) suggests that the current form of protesting which aim is “shattering the status quo” (Coalition of the Willing, 2010) is much more effective then content driven political movements. 

           The human megaphone was employed in the Occupy Wall Street marches were by which a cry would be echoed row by row throughout the congregation show a level of collaboration reminiscent of earlier times. This was used to combat the laws prohibiting megaphones, it essentially collaborated human forces to make a powerful entity that at the end of the day gained monumental coverage. 

           Social media networks in many ways can be seen as an extension of a human megaphone though rather than human it is technological. The echoing of a message through posting, reposting and continuing media exposure extends the message that the movement wants to get across.

           In this technological world it would be remiss not to assume that the future of protests will be conducted completely online. This echoing of a message can be also seen in the Kony 2012 campaign which utilised the social network medium to carry its message. Although not successful due to extenuating circumstances the campaign was an excellent example of how the power of social media through people can create noise about a cause. The rise of the new groupthink (Cain, 2012) is a demonstration of how technology has altered the way a congregation of people collaborate to make social change. 

References

              Cain, Susan (2012) ‘The Rise of the New Groupthink’, The New York Times, January 13, <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink.html>

               Knife Party and Rayner, Tim and Robson, Simon (2010) Coalition of the Willing <http://coalitionofthewilling.org.uk/>

               Manning, Erin (2009) ‘From Biopolitics to the Biogram, or How Leni Riefenstahl Moves through Fascism’ in Relationscapes;

Organise

The State of the State

For as long as it has existed the media and all its entities have entwined itself within the world of politics and governments across the globe. As media expands its mediums the reach that politics expands to is subsequently increased daily. With this comes a greater thirst and demand for individuals to know more up to date information regarding their government. Through the media governments have had to increase the transparency of their own goings. This has led to a freedom of access and increased recognition of political actions. Lessigs (2009) demonstrates the act of a transparency government through the example of the US governments ‘transparency projects’. This entails data being presented to the public in the form of a website that is regularly updated on policies, information and transactions.

But is this always a good thing?

As Lessig expresses, in his Against Transparency (2009) article, audiences are not necessarily capable of process the quality and quantity of information that is presented and available to them. The new age of media brings about such a range of available information that audiences are often so inundated with trivial information that the most important facts are left unnoticed.

New media, in particular, social networks has allowed for a further level of transparency between politics and the public. The personal information that the public is privy to about politicians has increased greatly with every politician having their own FaceBook and Twitter accounts. These live feeds have allowed for news to be accessed and published 24-hours a day. No longer are the 9-5 work hours an accepted time frame for news coverage.

As Bob Ellis discussed in his 2010 article Sleepless in Canberra, this 24-hour news cycle is causing a high demand for political updates. However it is also posing the threat that if one is not consistently in the media’s eye then the unit becomes irrelevant to the public. This is yet another reflection on the short attention spans that today’s audiences posses.

Lessig also expresses that there is a great sense of a lack of control due to the availability and spread of news whilst using social networks. Once a piece of information is on the internet it is forever accessible. Whether it is a grammatical error, a misconstrued idea, a poorly shot photograph or an ill-advised policy, every piece of information made available to the public can always be traced back. Politicians must now be actively conscious 24-hours a day of their public and private image, an issue that past politicians were not highly subjected too.   

Another discussion that has risen with regards to the transparency of actions within governments is the framing of conflicts. Paul Mason’s blog highlights the impact that new media forms have had on public revolutions. Mason goes on to discuss the difference in the current War on Terror vs. the Cold war, urging that the current scheme is not nearly as effective in ‘solidifying elites against change”. You just have to turn on the news to find the newest revolution against a corrupt government that’s driving force has come about through new media entities largely because the old are controlled by the government.

Governments and politicians need to display transparency in their work however they must remain careful that the public is not inundated with trivial and unimportant facts.

References


Mason, Paul (2011) ‘Twenty reasons why it’s kicking off everywhere’, Idle Scrawls BBC, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/paulmason/2011/02/twenty_reasons_why_its_kicking.html>

Lessig, Lawrence (2010) ‘Against Transparency: The perils of openness in government.’<http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/against-transparency?page=0,0>

Ellis, Bob (2010) ‘Sleepless in Canberra’ The ABC, Drum Unleashed <http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/35116.html>

Transversally

Main theoretical Concepts for the week -

Transversality in its entirety is the action of grasping as much from infinity as we can.

Framing is the act rejecting infinity as much as we can in favour of known given structures.

What this means in the real world

This week we are investigating how new technologies in particular the internet have caused major changes in traditional industry practices especially in the publishing and music fields.

In the past publishing materials has been exclusive to those whom are qualified to produce such materials. However with the movement towards online technology this is no longer the case. Social networking sites such as FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace and networking blogs have transcended the sharing and receiving of information. 

The ability to employ transversal thinking is critically important to innovation in media and culture practices. The publishing and music industries have been instrumental in facilitating the change. The intertwining networks within the media industry have created a more efficient and effective way of music production and distribution.

As Casey (2011) states in her work the new music industry is here. The industry isn’t changing but rather it has changed to accommodate to those around it. Furthermore the very concept of what makes a professional musician has changed (Paul, 2012). No longer is it vital to for a musician to have a recording contract or even be able to play an instrument, rather it is about how you can put yourself out in the cyber world (Byrne 2007).

The music industry has experienced great change due to technology advancements but it is certainly not dying, not even close (Casey, 2011). The reach that the music industry extends to is growing daily with musical downloads increasing beyond any physical record sales can only dream of.  The increase in intertwining networks will only prove to fuel the music industries power over the invention of media technologies.

Media is both a powerful assemblage and a forefront in the innovation of exciting and groundbreaking technologies.

Refrences
 Byrne, D (2007), David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists—and Mega Stars [Accessed 15/4/12] http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff_byrne?currentPage=all

Paul (2012), I’m a Successful Artist. And Here’s Why Things Have Never Been Worse, [Accessed 15/4/12] http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120214cracker

Casey, T. (2011), The New Music Industry Is Not Coming, [Accessed 15/4/12], http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/the-new-music-industry-is-not-coming.html

How we know what is real

       Are our memories a part of us? 


          It has been long thought that our memories are imbedded in our minds, retrievable at our own pleasure and will. We rely on our memories to know who we are, where we come from and what we have learned.

           However as with many other aspects of brain function we have come to rely on media devices to jolt or in fact be our memories. The knowledge that we acquire, often through media unities, is often not stored in our memory rather the process of how to access that information is retained.

            The very nature of FaceBook is allowing the act of remembering to become obsolete. No longer have do event times and dates needed to be stored in our natural memory. Past events are able to be displayed for instant recall and even past conversations are able to be instantly accessed.  The act of retrieving information through a no human source is how we know what is real.

           Memory itself has often been questioned by academics especially within the law and psychology fields. Psychological studies have defined meemory has the encoding, storing and retrieval of information. This process best works when there is a definitive need for the memorization of a specific piece of information.

           Eye witness accounts are often relied on by court however their reliability is called into question as psychological demonstrations have revealed the malleability of recall memory.

             This also calls for us to question whether memory function could ever have been called reliable and accurate. The act of documenting and achieving events has been around for as long as humans have existed. From cave drawings to inscriptions to photography we can see the human need to preserve memory. This is many ways implies that there has always been a need for additional materials to assist memory.

            So how do we know what comes from our own mind and what is urged on by semiotic triggers? How we know what is real? Simply; we don’t. We are so tied to media that differentiating the two is impossible. Although I leave you with one last thought, just because we can’t know if our memories are true or accurate doesn’t make them any less powerful and important.

References

Robinson, Michael D.; Johnson, Joel T.

Recall memory, recognition memory, and the eyewitness confidence–accuracy correlation.

Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol 81(5), Oct 1996, 587-594.

The Human Memory - Memory Recal/Retrieval http://www.human-memory.net/processes_recall.html Accessed 21/3/2012

Embody

Media; The most important ecology of all              

              Last week I described the notion of a Media Ecology and the difficulty that is face when defining such a term. This week I aim to delve deeper into the complex practicality of media ecologies.

              Melissa Deitz (2010) stresses the importance and effectiveness of the current media ecology, with the example of wikileaks. The revealing of such a large quantity of documents would not have been effective had it not been for social media networks, online news outlets and specifically designed websites. This network allowed for society to access, receive and send the data.

             The acceptance of who holds the power within the ecology needs to be addressed in order to ensure that all revenues within the system can prosper.

                Another look at the connection between natural ecologies and that of the media comes from Thomas Rawlings which rectifies that an ecology is “all about the relationship of energy” (Rawlings, 2011). Within the media world this can be seen in the relationship between internet sites that are in direct or indirect competition. The balance that these unities embody will all for a natural flow of information and ultimately survival.

            Neil Postman outlines that a major difference between the natural environment and that which is in the media environment are that the entities in the media world are implicit and informal. He urges that to accept such an entity we need to forgo the idea that media technologies are merely a machine and rather a growing environment.

            In order to appreciate and get the most out of any environment, we as humans must understand the web of interaction that it has developed and work within it and not against it. The media environment shapes the way the world interacts and develops, by feeding off the energy of the resources available; through such an ecology humans can grow as a society.

References

What is Media Ecology? Media Ecology Association. [ONLINE] http://www.media-ecology.org/media_ecology/index.html [Accessed 8 March 2012]

Rawlings, Thomas (2011) ‘Games as a happening, as a service (Notes from my talk at Goldsmiths), A great Becoming http://agreatbecoming.com/2011/02/03/games-as-a-happening-as-a-service-notes-from-my-talk-at-goldsmiths/ [Accessed 15 March 2012]

Deitz, Milissa (2010) ‘The New Media Ecolgy’ On Line Opinion: Australia’s e-journal of social and political debate. [ONLINE] http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=11410&page=1 [Acessed 15 March 2012]

Accessed through What is Media Ecology? —Neil Postman, “The Reformed English Curriculum.” in A.C. Eurich, ed., High School 1980: The Shape of the Future in American Secondary Education (1970). (accessed 15/3/2012)

Ecologies

Media Ecologies

Media Ecology as a tern is a relatively new idea to social studies as its focus revolves around the influences that technology has on society. First established by Marshall McLauen in 1964, the introduction of the term did not occur until 1968 when Neil Postman.

To understand this terminology we first have to look at the terms separately.

·         Ecology refers to the interaction of organisms and their surrounding natural environment.

·         Media refers to all the tools used to transmit, receive and store data.

Furthermore it is important to understand what is meant by society itself. Society is a difficult term to define and many theorists have offered their analysis. However in laymen’s terms a society is an organized group. This can be from the inner organization of oneself to a larger scale organization like a country.

So back to Media Ecologies...Together these terms literally refer to how organisms i.e. people interact with the tools used to manipulate data.

So how can media be an environment? The media is an ever changing and growing mechanism and cannot be simplified down to individual factors much like a natural ecosystem. To be a high functioning environment all forms of media must work to complement each other not to fight within itself. How the media will accomplish this; is to early to determine?  

Due to the recant nature of the terms and the rapid changes scene by the environment study of media ecologies as a whole is difficult. Postman originally suggests that studying media ecologies should in no way differ from environments.  Now days media technologies have been created for vast and varying reasons makes the act of studying such a topic have no concrete format to follow.

Media Ecologies is the study of the current state of the Media Environment.

References


-Media Ecology. Society. Media. Ecologies- Wikipedia, 2012. [ONLINE] Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_ecology. [Accessed 8 March 2012]

-What is Media Ecology? Media Ecology Association. [ONLINE] http://www.media-ecology.org/media_ecology/index.html [Accessed 8 March 2012]