com125 assignment 12: net neutrality

Net neutrality is “a principle of equal treatment of traffic on the Internet” (Svensson, 2007). The current debate about this issue deals with how much control the companies that build and maintain the Internet (mostly telephone and cable companies) should have over the content that runs through them and whether or not they can force Internet content providers to pay for that privilege (Efrati, 2006). The Internet is set up so that users can access any legal web site or application and that all Internet traffic is treated equally. Unfortunately, downloading a two-hour video eats up far more bandwidth than sending an email. As a result, telephone and cable companies have suggested that they may start charging fees to Internet-content companies, like Google and Yahoo, whose content is clogging up large portions of their bandwidth. Companies that refuse to pay might find their content moving at slower speeds than those companies that do pay.

Since cable companies are acting as both Internet service providers and content creators, they have a financial interest in prioritizing their own content and threatening online speech and democracy (Efrati, 2006). Their objective is to keep file-sharing traffic from taking up too much bandwidth and affecting the Internet speeds of other subscribers. However, blocking certain uploads has repercussions in the global network of file sharing. Companies like BitTorrent, who rely entirely on peer-to-peer file sharing, will be directly affected by these restrictions. Those in favor of net neutrality worry that unless it is put into law, broadband providers will try to block or degrade Internet access for some content and services, particularly those that compete with the phone and cable companies (Efrati, 2006). Without some type of anti-discrimination law or standard, these companies could control users' access by “blocking content from competitors, favoring certain applications, charging higher rates to deliver information into people's homes and offices and failing to inform people of their capacity” (Jones, 2007).

I believe that Internet service providers should not be able to discriminate, block or impair their consumers' ability to send or receive legal content over the Internet. No one has the power to stop companies like Google and Yahoo from distributing content over the Internet. If we embraced an open access broadband policy and allowed for more competition among Internet service providers then we would see lower consumer prices along with better speed and service. Instead we have corporate giants who continue to further expand the digital divide within our own country. Currently, broadband services in America remain unavailable for many living in rural and poorer urban areas, and remain slow and expensive for those who do have access (Turner, 2008). We as a nation should want to be at the top of the ranks in terms of our broadband use; instead, we are continuing to fall further and further away.

Resources:
Efrati, A. (2006). A battle for control of the web. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on November 9, 2008 from http://wsjclassroom.com/archive/06sep/htop_netneutrality.htm

Jones, K. C. (2007). Net neutrality debate remains contentious. InformationWeek. Retrieved on November 9, 2008 from http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=198001557

Svensson, P. (2007). Comcast blocks some internet traffic. Retrieved on November 9, 2008 from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/10/19/financial/f061526D54.DTL&feed=rss.business

Turner, D. (2008). Free american broadband! Retrieved on November 9, 2008 from http://www.salon.com/src/pass/sitepass/spon/sitepass_website_refresh.html

com125 assignment 11: virtual worlds

World of Warcraft and Second Life are both very different and very similar. World of Warcraft is a game with a community that has formed around it, partly because certain goals in the game are unachievable without teamwork and a community spirit. While Second Life is a community that has built a game around it, where there are no goals and the community is part of the experience.

Second Life does not function as a game but as an extension of reality; it creates a social platform for users to interact an create their own content. Although it is free to join, the virtual world operates on real currency called Linden. This form of cyber-capitalism is the most apparent within Second Life where more than 10,000 people interact on a daily basis. The games designers give people all of the tools and virtual land they need to create their own unique online experience. People can create their own businesses where they can charge money for virtual accommodations such as a haircut or clothes. One user has even claimed that her Second Life property business has made her a real-world millionaire (Giles, 2007). Although World of Warcraft has a larger number of users, it is different in that it does not allow that free flow of US currency. The only money exchanged is the monthly subscription that is required by all users. In the Warcraft economy, gold and exotic armor and weaponry that players accumulate are given value and are traded amongst one another (Levy, 2008). Although the games content and graphics are meticulously detailed, there are only a small number of people that are actually creating the games content.

It seems as though the most popular economies that are created on the Internet tend to mirror real life. These virtual worlds show similarities to real life at the level of one-on-one social interactions, however, the risks taken online are much greater then the one’s people are willing to take in the real world. Last year one of my Visual Studies professors, Stephanie Rothenberg, got us involved in a project where she studied the economy of Second Life and virtual labor within its middle class. She was even asked to exhibit it at the Sundance Film Festival last year. What she did is she created a sweatshop in Second Life called Double Happiness Manufacturing where they made "designer" jeans. After making a Second Life recruitment video, she collected workers to work long hours at the factory for little pay and in return they received a small area to live on her land. At Sundance, she connected herself to the online factory and had people order jeans from the festival. Their orders were taken by the Second Life workers and then printed out onsite on fabric with an industrial printer and Stephanie and her friends assembled the jeans for the customer.


Find more videos like this on dance-tech.net


References:
Giles, J. (2007). Life’s a game. Nature. Retrieved on November 1, 2008 from https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/courses/1/200809_471918/content/_1019953_1/giles_2007_lifes_a_game.pdf?bsession=29081714&bsession_str=session_id=29081714,user_id_pk1=132593,user_id_sos_id_pk2=1,one_time_token=

Levy, S. (2008). World of warcraft: is it a game? MSNBC. Retrieved on November 1, 2008 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/

com125 assignment 10: journalism

The article that caught my attention was the story about the death of Arkansas news anchorwoman, Anne Pressly, who was found beaten to death in her home on October 25th. The two news sources that I chose to review were The Buffalo News and a personal blog on blogspot.com.

I found a Libertarian Republican blog on blogspot.com that posted a comment to this terrible tragedy. The head editor of this blog, Eric Dondero, wrote that he believes Pressly’s small role in Oliver Stone’s movie W. may have played a role in her vicious attack. In the movie, she plays a news reporter who is said to be reminiscent of Anne Coulter. There has been speculation that her pro-Bush comments in the movie may have served as a motive to her death. Dondero then goes on to quote a fellow blogger named Kos in his somewhat hateful message to all “right-wingers” and Sarah Palin stating, “Palin says "Country" first - when it's unforgivably clear that she only means the half of the country that is willing to blow her kisses and forgive all her failures and foibles” (Dondero, 2008). As a small tribute, Dondero embedded a YouTube video that features pictures and text about the life of Pressly.

In comparison, the article in the Buffalo News was far more factual. It mentioned dates, times and personal testimonies along with the story. It mentions the fact that she was “beaten around the head, face and neck” and that she had “been unable to communicate with her family or police while being kept sedated in the intensive care unit” (Gambrell, 2008). It continued to describe how her family was dealing with her death and how the station she worked at, KATV, prepared an on-air tribute. There were also a lot of direct quotes from family and friends who recalled all of the positive aspects of Pressly and her personality.

It is easy to see that personal accounts of news stories are much more emotionally motivated. New reporters/writers are trained to just give the facts and most of the time the information that we receive from traditional media are coming from “gatekeepers” who control what parts of the story we are able to hear or read. People that have worked for news media corporations have all agreed that “news is controlled from within the organization” (Gillmor, 2004). The Internet has become a new means of mass communication and we no longer have to rely “gatekeepers” for our information. We can now rely on people like ourselves to provide us with unbiased news and opinions about topics that matter to us. The Internet is also more visually appealing since “online media allows readers to enjoy browsing their content and offer not only texts but also digital images” (Nozato, 2002). However, this can also be distracting to the eye when you are looking at websites that are bombarded with advertisements. In the end, I think it has more to do with accessibility. People are now able to access that information they want more easily and are becoming more reliant on themselves to seek out justification for their own opinions.

References:
Dondero, E. (2008). Arkansas TV reporter anne pressly dies from her injuries: daily kos blames "right-wingers" and even sarah palin. Blogspot: Libertarian Republican. Retrieved on October 26, 2008 from http://libertarianrepublican.blogspot.com/2008/10/arkansas-tv-reporter-anne-pressly-dies.html

Gambrell, J. (2008). Ark. anchorwoman dies in hospital after beating. Buffalo News.p.C1.

Gillmor, B. (2004). The gates come down. We the Media: chapter 3. p.45. Retrieved on October 26, 2008 from http://oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/ch03.pdf

Nozato, Y. (2002). Credibility of online newspapers. Retrieved on October 26, 2008 from http://www.inma.org/subscribers/papers/2002-nozato.pdf

com125 assignment 9: politics

Blog Hillary

The author of this blog is Kate Sokolov. She uses her real name along with her photo and not any type of pseudonym, which would then define her as a “citizen bogger.” Her first post can be dated back to June 23 of this year when Hillary sent a letter along with a video message to all of her supporters about how much of an inspiration they have been to her. I suppose that this was Kate’s inspiration to start this blog because in her first post entitled "UNITY" she wrote, “while Hillary is no longer actively campaigning for herself, our work is not done — Hillary called on all of her supporters to unite behind Senator Obama and ensure a victory for America in November by electing him to be President..”

Kate is clearly very passionate about the Democratic Party and, with the election quickly approaching, she posts new information almost every other day. The overall tone is optimistic despite the obvious lack of Hillary Clinton on the presidential ballot. Her main objective is the support the Democratic Party for this November election. Her posts are currently keeping updates of Hillary on the campaign trail with Joe Biden including photos and video of specific public events. On Hillary’s home site you can even learn more about Hillary’s background and how she went from being the First Lady to a US Senator. There are also places you can show your support for Hillary by buying exclusive merchandise or donating money so that you can become a “HillRaiser.”

According to a recent study, “46% of all Americans have used the internet to get news about the campaigns, share their views, and mobilize others” (Pew Internet, 2008). I think that for most people it is difficult to constantly keep up with the flood of information that comes during an election year. I believe that the Internet provides a relatively simple alternative to watching biased news reports on news stations like Fox. Blogs are a perfect example of how the tech-savvy, many of them young, gain a voice and can move masses (Baker, 2004). It is easy to search through the information that is posted to find something that you agree with. Then you are free to post your own comments in return and make your own voice heard. It also unites people for a common cause creating a sense of community among people who would otherwise not know each other. I think that politicians are catching onto the power of the Internet and are trying to use it to their advantage, unfortunately they have to be careful not to tilt the demographics of power so much so that they lose control.

References:
Baker, S. (2004). Click the vote: in the age of internet politics, the web can make or break a candidate. Business Week. Retrieved on October 23, 2008 from http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/04_13/b3876125.htm?chan=mz

Pew Internet. (2008). The internet and the 2008 election. Retrieved on October 23, 2008 from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_2008_election.pdf

com125 assignment 8: web application

The web application that I chose to review is Google Calendar. For those of you who are unaware, Google Calendar is a free time management web application offered by Google that allows people, even those without a Gmail account, to synchronize their contacts with a web-based calendar.


Similar to iCal, which I had previously used on my Mac, it is a personal date book to house all of your upcoming plans and events. You can drag and drop events from one date to another without ever having to reload the page. What makes this so unique is that all of your events are stored online so you can view them from any location that has Internet access. With your permission, you can make your calendar public and share it with friends and family so they can see your daily schedule and future events that you are planning to attend. You can also make multiple calendars for different groups of people to have access to. For example, if you are involved in a sports team or club you can create a distinct calendar for them to view with events that strictly pertains to the interests of that group.

The new GVENT feature of Google Calendar allows users to create new events and check calendar information through their mobile phone. Using SMS (short messaging service) codes like “next” and “day” can be sent to get a notification containing your next/all of your scheduled event(s) for the present day or send any date to get a notification containing all of your events for that day. I have never used this feature on Google Calendar but it seems as though it can be very effective time management strategy when you do not have access to the Internet. Google is also working on incorporating this application into their email service Gmail. When you receive an e-mail that contains trigger words such as "meeting" or specific dates/times an "add to calendar" button is automatically displayed alongside it so that you can add the event to your personal calendar.

In terms of the site’s design, simplicity is the key. I have found that it is very easy to navigate through and you can color code your events according to a particular category such as work or school. You can also customize the view of your calendar by clicking a tab to display the events for a single day, week, month, or the next four days. When you are done completing your schedule for a specific date you even have to option to print it out in case you will not have access to the Internet on that date.

I think that Google Calendar is both useful and beneficial because it is incorporating Google applications into the world of social networking applications. It can be seen as an aspect of social networking since you are allowing yourself to be connected to other people over the Internet. Most of the time people don’t even realize that they are allowing this kind of invasion of their privacy. By making all of your personal plans available for Google to see, it makes their job of collecting information about you that much easier.

com125 assignment 7: community

Since I am not really an active member of any online communities or social networking sites, the closest Internet communication technology that I can relate to is UBLearns. I believe that each course, especially an online course, on UBLearns constitutes as a community since structural process that is associated with community is communication (Fernback & Thompson, 1995). Over the past four years I have taken several online classes at the University at Buffalo including Nutrition, Social Psychology and Promotional Writing. I agree with Maia’s statement that taking an online class is an adjustment because students have to be responsible for their own learning. You cannot be dependent on listening to an instructor tell you the material or helping you with problems outside of class. You have to manage your time well and keep yourself in check with following up on the lectures and assignments because there is no one to remind you to do it but yourself.

Initially I was worried about forgetting to check in to the UBLearns site and that I would miss lectures or even worse assignments because I could not depend on a set time each week that the class would meet. In a traditional course you would meet multiple times throughout the week so you would be seated for a lecture and constantly reminded about upcoming projects and exams. This made it somewhat of a difficult transition for me because I was not used to relying on just myself to retrieve the course content. I am also the type of person that likes to establish a relationship with the professor so that I feel more comfortable asking questions both inside and outside the classroom. The problem with an online class is that the communication is very informal and there is no personal contact whatsoever. If I did not understand something in one of the posted lectures it was almost impossible to get an immediate response to clear up the confusion. I would have to either send an email and wait for a reply or call the professor at home, which I feel is rather intrusive.

For my Promotional Writing class that I am taking this semester, the first assignment was to post our own homepage that featured a detailed description of our personal background. The purpose of this assignment was to give everyone a feel of who was enrolled in the class that semester. Reading each homepage was an attempt to mimic the usual first day introductions that a traditional class would have. Having this introduction be computer-mediated allows students the “potential for making connections without regard to race, creed or gender” (Wellman & Gulia, 1997). In addition to our assigned projects we also had to post responses each week to open-ended questions that the instructor raised. We then have to post our responses in a virtual discussion board in an attempt to simulate an “in-class” discussion even though there is no real feedback ever received. We are however allowed to see what other members of the class have posted so we get a feel for other student’s opinions. Unfortunately, establishing relationships with other students is rather difficult because you never see them. In a traditional classroom it is much easier to consult with other classmates on questions you may have the material or even put together study groups for exams. One the plus side, UBLearns makes it easy for the instructor to organize the class. When it comes to grading it is easy to see who electronically submitted their assignments and who participated in the discussions because you have permanent record of each.

References:
Fernback, J. & Thompson, B. (1995). Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure? Retrieved on October 10, 2008 from http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html

Gulia, M. & Wellman, B. (1997). Net Surfers Don’t Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities. Retrieved on October 10, 2008 from http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/netsurfers/netsurfers.pdf

com125 assignment 6: identity

An online identity is a social identity that users rely on to differentiate themselves from all the other faceless characters in the virtual community (Online Identity, 2008). Unfortunately I have never, and probably never will, create an online identity in a virtual community; however, I am aware of some of the virtual communities that currently exist on the Internet such as Second Life and World of Warcraft. In the disembodied world of a virtual community, identity is ambiguous (Donath, 1996). Participants are freed from their own bodies and are allowed to take on an entirely new identity via an electronic persona. I understand that these games serve as an escape from reality for those who are obviously unhappy with their current lives. What I don’t understand is how so many people can become addicted to something that is not even real. When The Sims was first released I remember putting in several hours on the computer each day trying to make my family “happy” and build the coolest house on the block. Fortunately, I soon realized though that this was a total waste of my time. The amount of hours that I spent on the computer had absolutely no benefit to me outside of the game.

Here is a trailer for the movie Second Skin. For those of you who have never heard of this movie, it is a 2008 documentary about the real people who populate online virtual worlds in games like World of Warcraft and Second Life (Second Skin, 2008). You can also visit their website for more information and videos.



I suppose that if I had to name one online community that I am involved in it is Amazon. I recently created a seller account so that I could sell my used textbooks online. When I was prompted to create a domain name for myself I knew that I wanted to create something that sounded professional and did not have my name included in it. To appeal to the environmentally conscious users I chose the name of “recycleyourtextbooks.” I assume that my choice was beneficial because I sold almost all of my books within a month and most of them sold for more than what was the lowest price available. I suppose that my buyers thought that I was a more credible source since my seller name sounded more credible. Through my sales I have earned positive seller feedback and in return have developed a positive reputation on the site.

With online sites like Amazon it is always important that you take the proper precautious when releasing your personal and financial information online. Since my unfortunate encounter with identity theft on eBay, I always make sure that I log out of my account and that I never use the “remember me” settings. I know that this does not assure my safety but it gives me a better piece of mind knowing that I am doing what I can to minimize the chance of having my identity stolen again.

References:
Donath, J.S. (1996). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved on October 2, 2008 from http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

Online Identity (2008). In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on October 2, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Online_identity&oldid=108207999

"Second Skin" (2008) Retrieved on October 2, 2008 from http://www.secondskinfilm.com

COM125 assignment 5: privacy

I constantly worry about my privacy online. For me, privacy is something that people provide one another out of respect. As individuals we are entitled to our private lives, which are defined by what we choose to do, where we choose to go and the space around us. I mean it is psychologically healthy for people to set boundaries. Privacy on the Internet however is one of the most difficult things to be taken care of. Just type your name into a search engine and voila there appears your name, address and phone number for the world to see. Consider your e-mail inbox for example. If your inbox is continuously filled with spam, it is because at some point in time you unknowingly surrendered your e-mail address to the wrong website. Your telephone number and home address are no different. There are certain small companies such as Merlin who buy and sell your personal information. Merlin is just one of many commercial data brokers that advertises the sale of unlisted phone numbers, which are gathered from various sources such as pizza delivery companies (Sullivan, 2006). Even within our own computers HTTP cookies are used for authenticating, tracking, and maintaining specific information about users, such as site preferences and the contents of their electronic shopping carts. Cookies have been of concern for Internet privacy, since they can be used for tracking browsing behavior (HTTP Cookies, 2008). Many programs and operating systems are also set up to perform data logging of usage. This may include recording times when the computer is in use, or which web sites are visited. If a third party has sufficient access to the computer, legitimately or not, this may be used to lessen that user's privacy. This can be avoided by disabling logging or clearing logs regularly (Internet Privacy, 2008).

According to Privacy International, the United States is an extensive surveillance society (Privacy International, 2006). I think the problem is that most people assume that they have control over who has access to their personal information and that these exchanges are private and secure. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. Every time you access a website or send email, you leave information about yourself that includes your computer IP address, home address, telephone and credit card number(s), consumer pattern data and much more. If you use the Internet and/or email without taking the proper safety precautions then you have probably given up your right to privacy. Even more so, I think that people are just careless when it comes to keeping their information private. It has even been shown that “people will surrender personal information like Social Security numbers just to get their hands on a measly 50-cents-off coupon” (Sullivan, 2006).

I know that being able to disclose personal information about your self is healthy and can even be therapeutic to some people; however, is it safe to do when the audience is anonymous? Yes, you want the freedom of speech but we know that there is a limitation to how much information should be revealed. By taking photographs and videos of yourself and uploading them to such applications as blogs, Facebook, and YouTube, we are actually enabling others to infringe upon our privacy. People may start to feel a certain emotional attachment to you when reading or viewing your personal artifacts, but can you really trust that stranger? Sure, you can read his/ her personal information in return but there is no guarantee that the information is authentic. For example, we have all heard stories on Myspace where a 40 year-old man pretends to be a 15 year-old girl in order to talk and eventually meet up with an underage girl.

A specific scenario in which my privacy was invaded occurred when my identity was stolen on eBay about four years ago. I had had an eBay account for several years prior to this incident and had never experienced any negative consequences of releasing my checking account information over the Internet. I am very meticulous about keeping my expenses accounted for in my checkbook so I knew if anything were to happen, I would find out about it within a matter of days. I distinctly remember going through my bank statement one day and seeing some unaccounted for eBay charges that were made to some strange websites that I had never heard of before; one of which was a German website. I then quickly contacted eBay’s customer service number who confirmed that these charges were made under my account but were certainly not being sent to my address. The man on the other line was very nice about everything and was quick to refund me my eighty dollars. I then asked if they (eBay) intended on doing anything about this, since I knew it would be easy for them to find out who did this by seeing where the stuff was sent. Unfortunately, he responded by telling me that eBay could not look into his personal information because it was an invasion of his privacy. I was absolutely stunned that the law was going to protect someone that just broke it. I was so scared about my stolen identity that I did not know what else to do then to completely cancel my eBay account. I then went as far as to contact my bank and get a new checking account number for myself. Even though it may seem that I went to some drastic measures I do not regret my decision and ever since that day I have not created a new eBay account. In terms of the social networking sites that I am involved in, I always make sure as to adjust my privacy settings so that people that I approve can only view my account.

References:
“HTTP cookie.” (2008, September). From Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved September 23, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie

“Internet Privacy.” (2008, September). From Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved September 23, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_privacy

Privacy International. (2006, February). “Leading surveillance societies in the EU and the World” Retrieved September 23, 2008 from http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd%5B347%5D=x-347-545269

Sullivan, Bob. (2006, October). “Privacy Lost: Does Anybody Care?” Retrieved September 23, 2008 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/

COM125 assignment 4: online economies

A gift economy is an economic system in which goods and services are given, rather than traded. On the contrary to our common perception of a gift, the gifts in a gift economy do not have to be tangible or purchased using money. In the context of the Internet, there is currently a great deal of sharing and cooperation that occurs within online communities. Many users offer free assistance and helpful information to complete strangers without the expectation of any direct reciprocal exchange. For example, in a number of online discussion groups for lawyers, individuals offer each other detailed legal advice about specific cases they are working on. These lawyers report that they often refuse to give similar information over the phone or charge up to several hundred dollars an hour for the same advice (Kollock, 1999).

In a gift economy, the benefits come from improving a person’s social relations by increasing the range and diversity of his/her social network. In other words, it can be seen as an outlet where people can come together "to learn, to understand, to change and take charge of the world" (Pollard, 2005). However, when people pass on free advice or offer useful information, the recipient is often unknown. Therefore, gifts of information and advice are often offered not to particular individuals but to a group as a whole. One motivation for someone to contribute valuable information to a group is the expectation that he/she will receive useful information in return; otherwise known as anticipated reciprocity. This idea of reciprocity occurs within online communities as a system of generalized exchange. If each member shares freely with one another then the entire group benefits because each person is given access to information and advice that no single member may of initially had. In addition, some people may also feel that they have a certain reputation and prestige to keep up on contributing valuable and trusted information on a certain subject (Rhinegold, 1993). Either way, members develop a strong sense of commitment to the group.


An example of a gift economy that I participate in is Flickr. For those who are unaware, Flickr is an image and video hosting website that has evolved into an online community platform. In addition to users sharing their personal photographs, the service is also widely used as an image repository. According to their website, the goal of Flickr is to create a new way of organizing photos and videos. Part of their solution was to make this a collaborative process, which was accomplished by their folksonmic means of tagging. What this means is once you are a member you can give anyone permission to organize your collection through the use of notes and tags which in turn makes your collection easily searchable within the site.

Flickr constitutes a gift economy because members are willing to upload and share their personal photographs with complete strangers with no type of guaranteed compensation in return. At most, they will receive positive feedback on their contributions and gain popularity among the Flickr network. What makes membership so strong is that all of its members are interlinked simply by a common interest. Coming from an artist perspective, I know that I benefit simply being able to be inspired by another artist’s work.

References:
Kollock, Peter. (1999). The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace. Retrieved on September 15, 2008, from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm

Pollard, Dave. (2005). "The Gift Economy" Retrieved on September 15, 2008 from http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/04/17.html

Rheingold, Howard. (1993). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Retrieved on September 15, 2008 from http://www.well.com/user/hlr/vcbook/

COM125 assignment 3: copyright and conflict

The public’s perception of copyright protection is often conflicted. On one hand, copyright is seen as a fair way to provide compensation for an author’s labor. On the other side, individuals want to access information easily and at the lowest cost. Unfortunately, both sides seem to be at a loss; the creators do not want to risk the possible corruption of their work and the public does not want to be limited in their access to information. The question is, is there a way to balance the interests of both parties and make every happy?

In an ideal world, everyone would have equal access to information. The public believes that free content should be a right not a privilege, especially in regards to the Internet. Yet, when the public is allowed free access to other people’s work, there is the risk that certain members of the public will take it and make adjustments to approve upon what was originally created. This ultimately drives down the demand for the creator’s original work because, lets face it, we as individuals always are in search for the next best thing. With that said, it is easy to see why content creators are so concerned with the preservation of their original work. However, these creators need to understand that not all possible uses of their work are abusive.

The original purpose of copyright laws was to benefit the public’s knowledge by promoting progress of the arts and sciences while giving creators exclusive rights to their creations for a limited amount of time (Why Copyright?, An Introduction to Copyright, n.d.). As a result, creators are allowed to benefit financially from their creations, which would in turn provide them with an incentive to continue creating. In the end the public benefits because they are given free access once the limited time has passed. However, since 1962, Congress has extended the term for existing copyrights eleven times, and twice for future copyrights. A copyright now lasts as long as the author's life plus 70 years, extending far beyond the “commercial life” of most creative work, which is only a couple of years (“The Mouse Who Would Be King,” 2004).

The relatively recent concept of file sharing has further decreased the willingness for people to pay for work. (The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales - An Empirical Analysis, 2005). Evidence of this can be seen in the music industry where sales have plummeted as a result of P2P sharing. There is no longer the need to purchase a CD when the songs are being pirated on the Internet and available to download for free. In reality, how can piracy be stopped when it is being indirectly encouraged by the constant expansion of bigger and better technology? MP3 players and iPods for example have only become repositories for stolen music. I agree with Simone's comment that "If there was some way to inspire people to stop patting each other on the back for stealing from others and to hold each other accountable, that would be an ideal solution."

One of the problems that exists in trying to find a solution to this conflict lies in education. There are many misconceptions surrounding copyright in regards to the Internet and the public needs to be better educated about the restrictions and the consequences of pirating. If people had a better understanding of these implications, it might help to alleviate the massive amount of pirating that occurs on the Internet.

The use of Creative Commons licensing should also be promoted as a possible solution. Creative Commons is a non-profit organization, providing free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry (Creative Commons, 2007). This site offers creators a host of licenses under which to release their work to the public. These private rights protect the full work but allow for sampling and further reuse for educational purposes.

In conclusion, in order to balance the interests of content creators and the public there need to compromise and moderation. Legislation needs to stop making the issue so one-sided and consider the rights of the consumer. The copyright laws need to be more relaxed in order to better serve their original purpose, which is to benefit the public.

References:
An Introduction to Copyright. (n.d). Retrieved September 8, 2008, from http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/2.php

Creative Commons. (2007, January). Retrieved September 8, 2008, from http://creativecommons.org/

The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales-An Empirical Analysis. (2005, June). Retrieved September 8, 2008, from http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_June2005_final.pdf

The Mouse Who Would Be King. (2004, April 8). Retrieved September 8, 2008, from http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2004/04/08/copyright_culture/index.html

com125 assignment 2: history of newsgroups

Before the World Wide Web existed people using the Internet had to rely on each other to share information. Since there were no Internet service providers, it was only within closed communities like universities or private organizations that the Internet was used to have public conversations with other individuals. However, if you wanted to interact with people globally, Usenet was the answer. Usenet contained a wide variety of newsgroups that individuals could join which focused on a specific topic of discussion. It was like a global community that gave people an easy way of getting together even though they were in different parts of the world.

With that said, a newsgroup is a place where information can be posted and stored for a wide range of users to access; think of it as a large public message board. Most of these groups are focused on a particular topic. Some allow their users the freedom of posting on a variety of on-topic themes while others are stricter and do not approve any off-topic subject matter. The administrator of the news server has complete control on how long articles are available for discussion before they are permanently deleted from the server. In general, the majority of these “admins” keep articles for about one to two weeks.

Although newsgroups can be a valuable source of information, support and friendship, it seems as though someone always has to go and ruin a good thing. Soon enough people started to post extremely off-topic subject matter on a mass number of newsgroups. This newsgroup spam multiplied and eventually evolved to the email and web spam we currently see today. Newsgroups can in fact still be found on the web. According to Wikipedia, there are currently over 100,000 newsgroups in existence; however, only about 20,000 of those are active. Each one varies in popularity; some will only receive a few posts a month while others will receive thousands of messages in a single day.

Here is a video from YouTube that I found. I am not sure who this man is and why a chat box is streaming at the bottom of the screen but he gives a really good overview of the history of Usenet and newsgroups. Enjoy.




Seeing as we are social beings, it is evident that newsgroups have had a profound effect on many of the communal applications used on the world wide web today. Web forums, weblogs and even social networking sites like Facebook can be thought of as the offspring of newsgroups. It can even be seen as extremely common for people to participate in one or all of these applications. However, over the past decade the focus has shifted from the community to the self (in newsgroups the thread was directed by the crowd and in forums/blogs the creator dictates what is posted). For many active users these "online diaries" become more that just a way to communicate; they become a way to express deep-seeded emotions and reflect on life. For others they create a virtually accessible community and, with the media continuing to be a driving force in people's lives, these sites offer a way for people to advertise and promote themselves to the world. As human beings we naturally crave attention and the internet/web provides the perfect platform for this competition to take place.

a quick introduction

My name is Andrea Swierat. I was born here in Buffalo, New York and currently reside in the village of Depew. Sadly, this is my final semester here at the University at Buffalo. I am kind of an unique case because I am graduating with both a BFA in Fine Arts with a minor in Communication Design and a BA in Communication. Needless to say the last four years have been quite busy for me. Upon receiving my two degrees in February I hope to secure a career in the advertising field as a junior designer and eventually make my way up to a senior art director. If anyone is interested, you can check out my online portfolio.

Aside from school I work part-time as a barista at Starbucks. Not the one on campus, but the one in Depew on the corner of French and Transit Road if you want to stop on by. Over the past three summers I have also worked as a design intern at Delaware North Companies, Fisher-Price and most recently Travers Collins & Company. Even though they took up most of my summer I greatly appreciate the experience they have given me and know that they will benefit me when I start to apply for jobs at the end of the year.

In my spare time I enjoy watching shows such as The Office, Grey's Anatomy, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and basically anything on HGTV. I also tend to listen to music when I working because it inspires me and keeps me focused. You can usually find me listening to alternative/indie rock bands like Coldplay, The Shins, Death Cab/Postal Service, Modest Mouse and so on and so forth. In terms of movies, I enjoy ones that are also on the indie side of the spectrum. Some of my favorites are Garden State, Closer, The Darjeeling Limited, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Crash. If you haven't seen any of these movies, I highly suggest that you go out and rent them immediately. I am also a big advocate of the "green" movement. It really doesn't take a lot to make a difference. People need to stop being lazy and ignoring the problem because things like climate change are not going away and they will only continue to get worse in the future. If you are interested in what creative options are out there, visit the Inhabitat website.

In taking this course, I hope to achieve a better understanding of how the internet is structured internally. Already being a avid user I know how most things operate; however, I want to dig deeper and discover why. Hopefully by the end of the semester all my questions will be answered. Last, but not least, here is a link to the original assignment.