I think many of us are naive about data, it's stored, it takes space and there's a lot of it. But it's how we use these nebulas of code and information that intrigues me. The idea of prediction based of results from analyzed and sifted data is exceptional, predicting crime hotspots based of countless accounts of activity on the internet, predicting sickness in areas, predicting stock prices and advertising, Big Data is making it easy, set the algorithms, and let the machine do the work, what it spits back out is likely extremely valuable information which is aiding almost every aspect of human life.

 What's more about Big Data is the fact that it's simply not disappearing anytime soon, the internet will continue to grow and prosper, harboring more and more useful information which, It will be interesting to note the role Big Data plays 10 or 20 years from now. As technology and medical knowledge advances it naturally becomes digital, and with algorithms sifting through this information and making connections it's likely cures and innovation will come from it. If we cast aside the wonders Big Data is doing for economies, big businesses and irritable advertising we can all agree that Big Data is a very good thing. It's also interesting to look at the value of data itself, Big Data is almost a currency in itself. Imagine companies selling their clumps of data to other companies, where they subsequently sift through it for diamonds, a crazy concept. 

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Liam Devonshire

References

Woodford, Darryl, Katie Prowd and Axel Bruns. (n.d.). “Telemetrics: Towards Measuring Social Media Engagement with Television.” Accessed May 10, 2014. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-5234702-dt-content-rid-2118244_1/courses/KCB206_14se1/Woodford%2C%20Prowd%20and%20Bruns%20-%20Telemetrics%20Towards%20Measuring%20Social%20Media%20Engagement%20with%20Television.pdf

New media means new power, and anyone can use it, social media is a way of connecting and organizing, and should you do it correctly a tool that can aid in almost anything you do. What I find extremely interesting is the relationships governments are making with the people, are they completely artificial? search a politician on Facebook and you're bound to find a page they've created allowing them to connect and identify with countless others, Barack Obama's online campaigning is a prime example, of smart, effective relationship building which not only gathers potential votes, but sends a message as well, that these politicians are genuine people not just fortunate men in powerful places. (sneaky PR in my opinion) 

Another interesting aspect of social media and democracy is the idea of online activism, let's take a look at the London riots, though not directly organised via social media, twitter, blackberry messaging and Facebook all played vital roles in fueling the violence, that took the lives of 5 people and injured more than a hundred others. Other forms of protests such as the Egyptian uprising have been organised by social media as well. Social media is dangerous! and many regard the internet and social media itself as a weapon for all sides. 

another interesting example was the trial of Joseph Estrada, with thanks to text message services, huge amounts of people were able to organize protests, and subsequently bring Estrada to justice. New media in most of it's forms is simply powerful and can bring about huge democratic change, it is without a doubt that social media will play these same roles again in the future. 

Reference List

Shirky, Clay. 2011 “The Political Power of Social Media: Technology, the Public Sphere, and Political Change.”In Foreign Affairs 90:1

Sauter, Theresa L. 2014 “KCB206 Internet, Self & Beyond; Week 8 Lecture Notes Accessed April 28, 2014.

How content is created and consumed is shifting significantly, everything is becoming digital and whilst in some cases we hold on tight to more traditional forms of new media for the most part we are all driving this change without question. What I find most interesting is how advertising and marketing benefits from these huge changes in media. Businesses were once confined to a few basic forms of advertising, but now products and entertainment are strewn across countless mediums allowing businesses to not only engage with their audiences and forge somewhat of a relationship but also advertise what they're selling on a more broader scale. TV shows for instance are advertised through mobile phones, applications, streamed videos, television, movies, and gaming consoles, this concept of crossmedia is colossal and businesses that get it right reap the rewards. One particular example is with video games, large budget video games that are nearing release have applications, websites and countless other interactive mediums designed, allowing customers to plan and engage with the title as it nears release, Examples include the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises. What this all boils down to is media power, and most of that power ends up with large corporations. Furthermore products such as Redbull are creating YouTube channels that not only promote their products and sponsor certain people but also create power creating a following for their business and making them even harder to compete with Burgess, Jean and Green, Joshua, (2009) further explore this concept and countless other issues regarding YouTube and power. Despite constant debate and analysis the changes in new media is something that can't be stopped and doesn't need to be, there is to some degree a balance of new media power. 

References

Burgess, Jean and Green, Joshua, (2009). Chapter Two : YouTube and the Mainstream Media. In Burgess, Jean and Green, Joshua, Youtube : online video and participatory culture, (pp.15 - 37). Cambridge UK: Polity Press. 

Sauter, Theresa. 2014. “KCB206 Week 5 New Media and the Entertainment Industry.” Accessed March 30, 2014.

Week 4: New Media Enterprises

The Mechanical Turk: Just one more HIT

During week 4 we looked at New Media enterprises, the businesses surrounding new media and the exploitation's that come with it. What struck me most during week 4's content was the idea of the mechanical turk, an online crowd sourcing marketplace (so they say) where anyone can sort data for that cash money. A whole 1 dollar an hour if you're blitzing through it! sit down for 7 hours and you've earned lunch at subway. It isn't slavery, not is it exploitation, users can choose when to work and how long they do it for, what strikes me is how genius it is, it's almost like a game so users find it fun. However as with any game has anyone cheated yet? numerous online games have false accounts known as bots which gather a certain beneficial currency or item within that game world, the bot owner can go to work and come home to a computer program which has been doing all the work for him/her, could a bot be programmed for amazon's the mechanical turk, could this program sort through data and earn the owner cash much like that in an online game. Further more is this concept of "goldfarming" much like the turk, employees play games for hours on end acquiring virtual gold and selling it for real world money, the gatherers are maybe payed on an hourly low rate, whilst the employers sell these virtual stockpiles off for ridiculously high sums of money, sometimes into the thousands for a single package, what's more is the process is illegal it violates countless laws that protects game developers and the rights of workers, (Ahmad 2009) further explains goldfarming and it's illegal properties. This form of crowd sourcing is financially genius and teeming with ethical concern. 

 What I further found fascinating was the use of targeted advertising, the way you use the online world is analyzed and from that advertisements you see in your feed, or online are all tailored by you and your interests, this form of advertising which I also covered last week allows companies particularly social media companies to acquire large revenue by initially selling off information (Fuchs 2013) further looks into targeted advertising and how it works in an online political and capitalist environment.

References 

Sauter, Theresa. Dr. 2014. “KCB206 Internet, Self and Beyond: Week 4 lecture notes.” Accessed March 28, 2014.

Fuchs, Christian, (2013). Chapter 5 : The Power and Political Economy of Social Media. In Fuchs, Christian, Social media : a critical introduction, (pp.97 - 125). London, UK: Sage Publications. 

Ahmad, M.A. ; Dept. of Comput. Sci. & Eng., Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA ; Keegan, B. ; Srivastava, J. ; Williams, D.  more authors

Liam Devonshire/ KCB 206

Week 3 Content Review and Discussion

A Different Kind of Hunger

During week 3 we had a look at the sheer amount of content created in the New Media field, everyday we are creating and consuming content online, in a way we find ourselves hungry for this content, checking constantly our favorite pages and social applications creating and consuming the vast amounts of data. Even now as we all post on these blogs, tagging, sharing and interacting with each other, we are adding content to the new media universe that will most likely be online for years. We further looked at audiences, we were once your basic audience, you turn up, you consume what it is you assembled for and you leave, this isn't the case anymore, from movies to online media, the audience can be a part of it, changing it, almost in a way taking control of it, an interesting example is interactive movies, where the audience can determine how a movie plays out. (Rosen, 2006) further explores this concept discussing how audiences no longer receive from media systems but take part. Follow this link to see how interactive movies work!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe9CiKnrS1w

However despite how we consume and create content, corporations will always find a way to take advantage of the customer, sometimes based of what you search, view, and share online data is being generated and advertising products that closely resemble what you have been viewing online, a genius approach to marketing, you're basically advertising to yourself. I found interesting also how with so much content, there is almost not enough consumers, I'm sure all of you have some dodgy YouTube video you created at some stage at your life, maybe years ago, which now only has maybe 36 views, out of the millions of YouTube and online users, there's just too much, and that can be a real letdown for people hoping to freelance or base their careers of content they upload on the internet. One of the readings for this week much like the lecture slides focused on audiences and their "rise to power" and how as users we are changing and controlling New Media. 

Refrences

Sauter, Theresa. 2014. “KCB206 Internet, Self and Beyond: Week 3 Lecture Slides.” Accessed March 16, 2014.

Rosen, Jay. 2006. "The People Formerly Known as the Audience" PressThink: Ghost of Democracy in the Media Machine, June 27. (shot blog post). Available at: http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/27/ppl_frmr.html

Liam Devonshire

Week 1 Content Review and Discussion

Lecture and Tutorial Content

Week 1 of KCB206 Internet, Self and Beyond focused mainly on introducing students to the course and what to expect from the subject as the semester rolled on. In the first lecture we were provided with information on what New Media initially is touching on numerous sub categories from social to cultural, and economic to political. How New Media affects us in the now is simply astounding and when thought about critically, also a bit frightening. We looked at how New Media can be good in countless ways however bad in others, I found this interesting as I find people shy away from the controversial and negative aspects of social media instead of noticing them, I get the impression people are so attached to all that is 'good' about social media including it's social benefits that the threats New Media can harbor never cross their minds. We further looked at how Social Media is used along with how it continues to grow and expand.

Week 1 Reading Review  

The Reading for week one much like the lecture was initially an introduction to the concept of New Media, however it was incredibly detailed discussing why we call it 'New' Media. The reading also looked into convergence which is more or less "a coming together" it looks at how technology becomes more and more alike connecting to each other, it is the idea of numerous technological services forming into a singular network. The reading further looked at the very short but dense history of the internet, it looked at the practices and social implications of the internet and the subsequent communities that was spawned from them. I found the lecture and reading very interesting however encumbering the subject of New Media is one thick with information and academia, that almost anyone can find useful.  

References

Sauter, Theresa. 2014. "KCB206 Internet, Self and Beyond: Week 1 Lecture Slides." Accessed March 15, 2014. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FlistContent.jsp%3Fcourse_id%3D_108110_1%26content_id%3D_5232443_1

Flew, Terry, (2014). Chapter 1: Introduction to New media. In Flew, Terry, New media, (pp. 1 - 17). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Liam Devonshire