Lachlan's Real Good Blog

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

China fortifies Great Firewall with crackdown on VPNs

Officials launched a 14-month nationwide campaign cracking down on virtual private networks.

Getting around China’s Firewall proves more difficult as more security methods are ramped up! Tricky.

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

The GREAT (Fiery) WALL

Looking back at the past few months I have seen the same major theme present itself in different ways over a variety of forms, which in my glorious 20/20 hindsight is the marvelous human condition.  Looking to the 11th week of readings as Crampton looks into how Chinese citizens are living without the 'marvels' of Twitter YouTube & Facebook and found that in spite of not having access to the same platforms as the rest of the world they have engineered and made use of their own (2011, pp. 28-30).

I suspect that this is no revolutionary step forward for the Chinese people due to a comparison that is drawn from my own life, which is self-interest and familiarity.  If I was a part of the rich culture over one billion people share with the vast amount of land that they have access to, I don't think I'd feel a huge desperate need to access the few small sites that are on the blacklist from the government, heck, I barely ever go out of my way to view internet content that isn't Australian or American let alone doing political research in China.  By simply putting myself in their shoes I believe that even despite censorship being a little archaic in the digital age, I don't think that the election coverage on facebook for Donald Trump would have been that ground-breaking.

I think that this alternative media that China has artificially cultivated is a testament to the innovation and development process and the fact that they have alternative services, apps, and interactive platforms shows that despite the nation being devoid of the traditional western social medias they have come together and have made kinda half-clone-half-mutated versions of the apps we all use today on the other side of that great (fire) wall of China.

I believe that in the future, perhaps way down the line when the censorship is not as severe or maybe even gone completely, that some of these 'cousin apps' might continue to hang around, as so far as I can perceive these apps have been developed by the nation and specifically for the nation and it has been so long since the schism occurred I think that China will continue to stand on its own two feet and continue being its own not so little unit, and that's pretty neat.

References:

Crampton, T 2011, 'Social media in China: The same, but different, China Business Review, Vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 28-30, viewed 31 January 2017, <http://www.thomascrampton.com/china/social-media-china-business-review/>.

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

A quick look at EVE for anyone new to it!

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

EVE Online, Revolution or Rare Earth?

During a discussion with an old gaming buddy of mine, we both decided to look back at the time when we were both jumping from one MMORPG to another hoping that we would find one really 'good' one that we could get involved in, however, after a good few months of burning free trial to free trial we both gave up as neither of us could get into the communities, lore and time commitment that was synonymous with gameplay.  During that time of exploration, one MMO we came across was EVE online which despite being quite an aged game at the time was highly recommended by a friend who had been playing for years already.  My small amount of experience over the time that I played EVE online was very similar to the findings of de Zwart & Humphreys as they describe that the delicate mix of end user license agreements and player made community social rules & norms can create vacuums where lawlessness prevails (2014, pp. 77-97).

In my first hour of gameplay, I wandered too far from the safe zone and was immediately fired upon resulting in the loss of the few resources I had managed to gather.  I found the concept to be very frustrating, that straying outside of the system generated warnings resulted in swift consequences which weren't generated by the programming in the game but an actual person was lurking and waiting for a new player to be blindsided by their curiosity, it truly felt like I could have been strolling down a dark alleyway with frighteningly similar consequences.

Despite this 'intergalactic' adventure taking place, I feel as if this online community as unique as it is, is only just another group of people working within the space that they are given.  I think that these huge platforms are alike to lab rats all existing within their own four walls and despite the fact that this social 'experiment' is completely optional people are still willing to confine themselves and work to create an ecosystem of their own in their spare time.  I think that this terrarium effect really goes to show that regardless of the medium, people always tend to stick to what is familiar.

References:

de Zwart, M & Humphreys, S 2014,' The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE Online', Cultural Studies Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 77-97.

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

“The Crucible” seems to resonate with every era in which it is performed. How do accusation, evidence and hysteria combine in an age of big data and social media?

Witch hunts! Then and now, a great perspective on phenomena that plagues us to this day.

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

Crowds and Wisdom

After a slow afternoon in the countryside seeing friends, I went back to hitting the books to reflect on this week's topic of crowdsourcing and was quickly intrigued by Ford's insights into the ideology of the wisdom of the crowd.  She goes on to reveal that when a group of people has an effective way of putting their resources and information together as a collective they can achieve much more and quickly accomplish traditionally complex tasks (2012 pp. 33-39).  

For me, I found that this idea of crowd wisdom has already had a big impact in around my life most notably when I was working on my first unit of study at Swinburne not too long ago.  I was faced with a group assessment that none of us really knew anything about, but we had all had minor experience with certain aspects of the task at hand.  As our task group spent the week quickly getting nowhere, we eventually decided to have a 'due-date-panic-meeting' in which we decided to all work together to fulfill the learning outcomes.  During the collaboration, we found that the group was quickly able to identify who would be best suited for what as we became more vocal about what prior knowledge we already had and the talents that were suited accordingly, long story short, we had a fantastic week of leading the discussion and less stressed overall.

As it turns out, I had stumbled upon a life skill that would lead myself to better success in my pursuits, both academic and professional as the idea of 'breaking down silos' and working in unison not only turned out to be a very proactive solution to my personal shortfalls, but also that the idea of it is scalable!  

Despite having a lot of advantages, I still like to be cautious when collaboration gets a bit too excited and turns into something resembling a hive mind.  As I have discovered in the previous week's popular ideas can be catching and if too many people get excited, decision-making processes may become skewed and that's happened throughout history from long before the Salem witch trials to the very recent Boston bombings.  So long as people are working together and thinking critically, I certainly conclude that there can be wisdom with the crowd, but I understand that wisdom can be lost at any time regardless of the subject.

References:

Ford, H 2012, 'Crowd Wisdom', Index on Censorship, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 33-39.

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

A bit rude, but certainly captures the passion of the hullaballoo.

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

We need more Trolls?

In the reflection of the week just past I found that the week 7 materials addressed a topic that I had previously been an absolute subject matter expert on, the art of trolling.  While within the context of the learning materials, McCosker goes into detail about how the ethics of being a digital citizen play important roles in the communities online, he further goes on to remark about how the element of provocation in some contexts can be a healthy thing for the environment of which they occur (2014 pp. 201-204).

In my experience, I believe that trolling is vital of course, these days I tend to keep my digital mouth 'shut' as I have found the less you play into other people's opinions and steadfast beliefs the less horrible you seem!  In my younger years, I found that questioning other people's views on any subject enough would frustrate them deeply, for example, in my primary school science classes I would revel in my peer's frustration when I brought up the topic of troll sciences (please see below for a particularly obnoxious example), however, despite the silly nature of the question my peers had a tough time reasonably explaining why the theories of levitation with household magnets would be impossible. As an unintended result of the questions I asked, we almost always learned something from them and were better off for it as the method of critical thinking we used would go on to help us in class and our other subjects as well.

Today, I find the conversation topics to be different but the interaction remains exactly the same- throwing a spanner in the works seeing people react and then try to either refute the question entirely or (hopefully) use critical thinking and ultimately become a better and more informed as a person.  My experience with individuals online is almost completely devoid of critical thinking and the resulting interactions are based on emotion and reflex alone, which creates a pretty big spectacle but at the end of the day those emotions are merely directed at the new flavor of the day and previous 'outrages' are forgotten (Kony 2012 anybody?) I would like to see this change in the future but I feel like trolling is only a small part of that puzzle. References:

McCosker, A 2014, YouTrolling as provocation: Tube's agonistics publics, Convergence, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 201-204

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

So many angry posts, not enough picketing.

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

Donald Trump and WWIII

Running around town this weekend I had few moments to check my phone, however, a Facebook post I looked at earlier in the day had amassed more than 200 comments and 20-something shares over a period of 6 hours or so.  The person who posted the open-ended question "How will Donald Trump start WWIII?" usually isn't very active on social media started a really heated conversation by simply putting a very current issue with an extreme concept.  This scenario lined up perfectly with the week 6 concepts and put into perspective what being an activist is all about.

Personally, I have never attended a protest and have never signed myself up for anything more than the 40-hour famine and after reading through the thread of hate filled comments of vitriol and the projected nostalgia of 'better times' I concluded that society needs an outlet for airing their grievances regardless of its impact or outcome, speculated or otherwise.

After looking into the week 6 readings, specifically the way Youmans & York describe how digital activism as creating ecosystems of perspective that can differ greatly from reality (2012 pp. 3-5).  Looking back in history to WWII with this notion in mind, I was able to see many similarities between the propaganda used by allied & axis forces and the only major difference is that the clickbait titles and hyperbole arguments were now highly interactive.  More specifically, comparing the levels of interaction between then and now is almost comical as 'responding' to a political poster back in the 40's would be seen as nothing more than graffiti that typically only a portion of the local community will ever see and while a facebook post is similar, there is the chance that the content can go 'viral'.

With all of the comments and opinions that I see flying around every day on social media, I can't help but feel like there is no real difference between how communities and their different opinions interact.  Popular, outrageous headlines and topics are benefiting from the way we communicate and social media is now looking to me like an extension of it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just the way we all shape our own worlds which is one big beautiful popularity contest!

References: Youmans, W, & York, J 2012, 'Social Media and the Activist Toolkit: User Agreements, Corporate Interests, and the Information Infrastructure of Modern Social Movements', Journal Of Communication, vol. 62, no. 2, Wiley-Blackwell, NJ.  

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

What is a digital footprint ala TEDx.

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

Politics, Civic Cultures & Cultural, Civic Politics?

This week I have felt truly enticed by the concepts presented, namely political involvement and digital citizenship.  In the last few years, I have begun to see the digital world for what it is - which is the ultimate, stereotypical, American cafeteria with different tables signifying different demographics, with the 'cool' kids, activists, shy kids, 'jocks', intellectuals & many more being free to move about the room consuming online content & chatting amongst themselves.  I use this metaphor to help explain the concept of democracy, as my opinion is that the internet is the best possible of democracy that we have left and will move on to be the new standard of not only social interaction but political as well.

After looking into the week 5 readings that take a deeper look into politics within the digital realm, Jericho outlines that the shortfalls of human memory have been transcended thanks to the digital footprint online users now own (2012 pp. 254-256).

These concepts when put together, I believe, will lead towards a digital mirror of society as it is today.  In the recent past, research has been highlighting digital bubbles and cautioning netizens against thinking the internet is the same for everybody, however, I think that life was already similar to that model and the social bubbles made for close communities, of course, some were perceived to be better than others!  I think it is certainly interesting that since the creation of the world wide web the technology has changed its form which has allowed it to be slowly shaped into my previously mentioned cafeteria model and more specifically becoming an extension of our lives by becoming more familiar to a wider demographic.

As we move into the future this global cafeteria will have more tables pop up, some bigger than others and all differently shaped and appropriately positioned, the big idea that I have been able to take away from this week of reflection would be that people are still humans in spite of any platform they socialize or even share political opinions on.  

I trust that over the following weeks I'll be able to use what information I've gathered so far to leverage a better understanding of how these concepts work together, rather than just a collection of unorganized ideas!

References: Jericho, G 2012, 'How many votes are there on Twitter?', in The Rise of the Fifth Estate, Scribe, Victoria, Australia.

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

Blog Post Dos Weeks 4-5

After reading over the last two weeks’ worth of learning materials I have found myself again learning more and more specifically, expanding my understanding of the network that I spend so much time on, the digital communities of the internet.

Introduced to me last week was the inner workings of the blogosphere, which when boiled down is simply a set of common practices when communicating with the internet’s ‘publics’.  These publics can described by Mizukos’ research as reactors, in a constant state of recreating and redistributing content through the publics and the greater societal exchanges (2008, pp. 2-4).  In my experience, I understand this description strikes me hard as recycling crossed with natural selection.  The reason I see such a large similarity is that whilst I’m browsing Reddit, for instance, I tend to sort content by the amount of positive ‘upvotes’ it has.  This means that only the content that was of value at its early stage and continued to resonate with the public reaches my device and the bad content goes to be altered before being posted again (hopefully).  I feel that this the reactor like simile is really helping me to see the bigger picture of the content lifecycle.

Furthering this idea of ‘recyclical’ content well into week 5, I found the Young reading to also extend from the ideas I was forming in week 4 as she describes that the 2008 American presidential election led to 78% of citizens seeking information online about the upcoming vote (2010, pp. 203-205).  This was unprecedented in terms of people seeking information as opposed to passively receiving it via traditional sources such as TV & radio, people had to use the internet as a tool to find information making it a very active process.  When bringing in the previous though of a digital natural selection it would be reasonable to believe that the most ‘popular’ content would be shown to these new info seekers as I know for a fact my own internet experience is far from typical and the user experience of the internet today are mostly made of emotive knee-jerk reactions to content.

While much of the content online at this time is plainly recycled and of questionable quality, I am starting to draw comparisons between that process and some infant form of academic writing.  Much like Facebook shock articles rarely are these ‘journalists’ producing any new reports and are auto-summarising what has already been said, much like the citations in this blog.  If more people were able to start to understand this insight, perhaps an ‘informed’ Facebook revolution could take place.

                                                      References:

Mizuko, I 2008 ‘Introduction’ in Vamelis, K (ed), Networked Publics, MIT Press, Cambridge.

Young, S 2010, 'News, political reporting and the internet', in How Australia Decides, Cambridge University Press, Victoria, Australia.

 ���

[digitalcommunitieslachlan-blog]

Blog Post Uno Weeks 1-3

      The first few weeks of delving into Digital Communities has been quite a shock to the system as not only have I begun to realise how isolated I have been from the social media and networking systems that exist today. In addition to this I have also been able to recognise that I really don’t know more than the basics of the social networking and media I currently use!

     By referring to the learning materials and by applying their academic values into my life, I hope to understand more about these communities and who knows, maybe there is a blog-a-holic in me yet!

     After dissecting the first weeks learning materials, I was posed with the question, ‘Is technology redefining human connection?’.  After dwelling on this prompt and looking back on my life as a teenager, I found that the question can be answered with a really loud yes.  boyd describes this well in her in chapter in the Social Media Reader describing that her lifestyle now has an almost always on affinity with the internet (2012, pp. 72-75).  In my life the comparison I reflected on was huge, as in the year 2007 I remember many people only using a phone for phone calls and texts shorter than 160 characters because you only had 100 free per month and in some instances you would have to have very specific meet-up instructions as you couldn’t always call your friend on the way!

     With all of these new and exciting changes happening so quickly I believe it’s also creating some possible blind spots to what is shifting at a wider community level.  As Siapera describes that in comparison to traditional communities where generally its members take the good with the bad, now individuals can rally with people based solely on shared interests and even create new circles with the touch of a virtual button (2012, pp. 193-194).  To me this has been very relevant to my own online communications as I catch myself in many situations tempted to stay home with social media and message who I want when I want, the option of the two is unprecedented as I can turn my phone off anytime, but I can’t exactly kick someone out of my house without consequences.  

      Jokes aside, I am now beginning to have a real look at social media and its many digital communities, however, I’m not entirely sure what this subject will bring out but I am hopeful that I’ll be able to become adept in perhaps having a greater understanding of all social media and interacting with them.

#iclickedcreatenewpagenowimhere

                                                      References:

 Boyd, D 2012, ‘Participating in the Always On Lifestyle’, in Mandiberg (ed), The Social Media Reader, NYU Press, NY.

Giphy 2015, Homer Simpson Animated GIF' [image], in simpsonworld’ stream, Giphy, viewed 10 December 2016, <http://giphy.com/gifs/season-12-the-simpsons-12x6-xT5LMDzs9xYtHXeItG>.

Giphy 2016, Robin Schultz Animated GIF' [image], in Robin Schultz’ stream, Giphy, viewed 11 December 2016, <http://giphy.com/gifs/robin-schulz-brazil-robin-schulz-l2YWmFKzaYt5AdoWs>.

Siapera, E 2012, ‘Socialities and Social Media’, in Introduction to New Media, Sage, London.