*Bella is my Cat*

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

Hey there girls! Last blog post this week! How are your final projects coming?

Anyway, This weeks topic is one of interest to me because I spend so much time online and not with people throughout the school year especially. As it is approaching finals, I find that my few moments to socialize are…

[msuinformationists-blog]

Sarah,

I think your idea of your community is right in line with a lot of people now-a-days. Many people have an online community woven into their real-life community. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing! It’s a part of our world now, and as the internet and online living become more developed and advanced down the line, I think the online community will only gain importance. 

I thought what you said about people being at a disadvantage eventually due to lack of social skills an intriguing point. I agree. I think that with the importance people are placing on the internet, the youngsters today will grow up on line. They won’t have as much time playing outside and interacting with kids as we did and our parents did. There will definitely be some bad implications as a result. However, on the flip side, I think they are also growing up learning the tools of the future. I think many of the jobs that will be available in 20 years will require a lot of computer skills, and these kids will be extremely prepared for those requirements. 

It’ll be interesting to see where we all end up, and whether growing up online turns out to be a benefit or a hinderance! 

Happy summer!

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

You are right, it will be interesting to see where we all end up. Interests and things that are important change over time too. Maybe it will be cool for kids to be in touch with the physical world again rather than the online I,e again soon. None of us can really say with certainty but personally I picture a wall-e sort of world where we dont even look at each other when we walk by and we just float arou,d on chairs looking at our computers :) haha

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

Hey there girls! Last blog post this week! How are your final projects coming?

Anyway, This weeks topic is one of interest to me because I spend so much time online and not with people throughout the school year especially. As it is approaching finals, I find that my few moments to socialize are…

[ashleah04-blog]

to answer your first question, i have all my sources and a darn good thesis but I am having serious writers block for the body…. :/ I think your question about social media causing the next generation to be socially awkward is an interesting one! I think the answer could be a chicken or egg conundrum. For instance it is said that home schooled children are socially inept because of their isolation. I know (because i was home schooled) that it depends more on the child. Is the child being home schooled because he/she is already socially isolating and awkward or is the homeschooling the cause…. are social media prone children doing it because its hard to fit in in person or because they simply can?

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

Good question, that is true. We may develop other ways of measuring social interactions, or what a social interaction looks like may change. Also parents and schools can supplement kids education in social matters and force kids to interact face to face.

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

Social Media-Week 14

Hey there girls! Last blog post this week! How are your final projects coming?

Anyway, This weeks topic is one of interest to me because I spend so much time online and not with people throughout the school year especially. As it is approaching finals, I find that my few moments to socialize are spent relaxing online rather than with people.

I have a hard time carving out social time with my friends when I can easily see them and know how they are doing online, plus, on top of that I am incredibly busy! This past week I was dealing with the stress of work, chemistry, and not being able to find an apartment, plus a few family issues thrown in there.

But, excuses aside, the people who I really care about are the people who I make time to call and see in person. I will visit them and hang out with them, but I ALSO interact with them on Facebook. I use Facebook as a way to stay cordially acquainted with people I don’t really care about but don’t want to cut off completely and as an additional source of communication for the people I actually care about. 

I am not physically with these people that I don’t really want to spend time with but they can feel sort of connected with me because I shared a vine to their wall. It seems like a win-win for both parties.

It is sort of weird that we can interact and feel close to people without ever seeing them, but it is a norm in today’s world. I think it may eventually place people at a disadvantage because they may not learn as many social skills as normal and not be able to get jobs or even interact with other kids on the playground. what do you guys think?

I am not really sure how I would define my community. I guess college in Bozeman, home in Spokane, and family all over the place connected on facebook in one little weird and sort-of dysfunctional bubble is a confusing community. But it is okay because I still have a grasp on who and what really matters in my life.

[msuinformationists-blog]

Reading the first article about lifelogging, I had to laugh a little. I’ve never heard of the term or practice and it just seems so ridiculous to me. I’m pretty “with it” technologically; I have an iPhone and mac, use the “cloud” and am on many social media outlets. However, the idea of literally...

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

I agree with you that recording the phone calls is a bit crazy! I think in 100 years the things that will remain will be the important things that people need to remember not the fluff of twitter and pinterest. Which is fine, things will be passed down how they always are through words, photos, writing, and even the internet. We don’t know what data collection and management will look like in 100 years but it will probably be an adaptation of what we have now so all we can do is keep doing what we are doing. I don’t really have any hard copy photos of my grandma, we scanned them all to the computer. I don’t think we have to worry about the questions the article poses. Because hard copy things can be lost too and then we really wouldn’t have evidence of them. At least when they are on the computer and face book they are available on a different computer when you log in.

[ashleah04-blog]

Reading the two articles for this discussion really reminded me of the movie starring Robin Williams called the Final Cut… I remember sitting in that movie with the same internal conflict that these articles caused. I like my privacy! But I also like to remember what it was like to hold my...

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

Hmm, I think it is kind o f cool that you can keep all your most important memories in one box. I have tried doing that and can’t! But i suppose when you move so much you have to keep only what is necessary. I don’t move very often so I keep a lot of things, but I also post a lot of photos of important things to Facebook! I also like my privacy and I don’t really do much that I would regret later online so I don’t really mind if others can see what I have posted because only the people who care will look and respond.

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

I’m not really much of a lifelogger other than posting pictures of my family and friends to facebook. However, I do think it is a good idea! I think it is really cool that some people can make a living writing about their lives on a blog or ‘vlogging’ their lives with a camera. In fact, I watch…

[ashleah04-blog]

I am in agreement with the self destructing chat. If i want to post something its because I want to see the feedback. Do you agree that scrap-booking is more an art form today than it is record keeping?

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

I don’t know if I consider my scrapbook to be art but I don’t really consider them just record keeping either. They hold memories and are important to me even though others would not necessarily care to look at it.

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

I’m not really much of a lifelogger other than posting pictures of my family and friends to facebook. However, I do think it is a good idea! I think it is really cool that some people can make a living writing about their lives on a blog or ‘vlogging’ their lives with a camera. In fact, I watch…

[msuinformationists-blog]

I’d agree with you that if the person is willing to put forth all the effort into recording every second of their lives, it could be pretty cool. But I definitely couldn’t be a lifelogger. I’m barely dedicated enough to my social media to be a “regular”. I’m like you also in the way that I LOVE journaling and scrapbooking. It’s so fun to physically flip through the pages and look at your favorite memories. I hope this never goes out-of-date. It’s timeless to me.

I do think that there isn’t really a thing as a destructive data social media site. I think it’s naive to think that when your photos on snapchat disappear, they’re just gone forever. Because just like that article said, they aren’t truly deleted, just encrypted or something so it makes it more difficult to recover the pictures. However, even beyond that, someone could screenshot your picture and send it out. You never know what happens with the stuff you put online, so I would caution everyone to be super careful about what they post. 

As for the websites that act as an online organizer for the lifelogger, I think that is their saving grace. I can’t even imagine the overwhelming amount of files and data they would have to sort through almost daily to find what they need. Without some kind of organization system they would be completely in over their heads.

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

That is why I think it is good that snapchat alerts you when someone screen shots your photo! at least you know who physically has a copy and that they could send it to anyone. However, I think the point I was making with the destructing media is not that it is truly gone gone but that no one is responding to it or commenting or seeing it all the time like on Facebook if your family wants to see pictures of you. Although nothing is ever gone on the internet, if you are responsibly using media then it sort of is gone. The people getting screwed on snapchat are the people who send nude photos and stuff. That is really the only reason someone would go through the trouble of finding and decrypting that photo.

[holyhoee]

How to recover an unsaved draft on Microsoft Word

 This literally saved my ass a few minutes ago. Yes, you can recover those files that you accidentally closed and thought you couldnt get back. 

Right after that happens, open Microsoft Word again and click File - Info - Manage Versions - Recover Unsaved Documents.

It is literally that simple.

[thelawgraduate]

Reblog to save a life.

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

My Blog Lead Week-

I’m not really much of a lifelogger other than posting pictures of my family and friends to facebook. However, I do think it is a good idea! I think it is really cool that some people can make a living writing about their lives on a blog or ‘vlogging’ their lives with a camera. In fact, I watch some of those regularly as if it was t.v.. However,I write in a journal too. So, sometimes I feel as if I sort of do a hybrid of lifelogging where I do both tangible and intangible means of recording my life. Do you guys agree or feel the same about yourselves?

I am different from today’s youth though in that I don’t really snap chat. Snap chat is huge right now and I don’t really care about it. I also don’t like twitter, but that’s another story :) Snap chat posts are self-destructing videos and photos. I use it as texting with my friends but through photos. But I don’t really post anything to my story because no one can respond like on facebook with comments in a stream, also there is no way to look back at your photos and what people said in response to it, which I don’t really like.

Have you guys ever made a paper scrapbook? I seriously love the way mine looks and I worked on it for a really long time! Because I really like keeping to myself and keeping some of my more personal memories and photos in a book, I don't think I could be a lifelogger because in a lot of formats others would be able to view it. 

What do you guys think about websites that host ‘memories’ for lifeloggers? Its basically just an online organizer for all your social media and websites that saves things you do. Honestly there are a lot of different ways to do that, not just through these websites. what do you all think?

I’m interested in hearing your thoughts!

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

The case of the song blurred lines, really does have blurred lines because it is really hard to know what really happened.

Despite the song being really sexist and sort of rude to men who know how to control themselves, if these guys really did violate copyright of a Marvin Gay song, they can…

[msuinformationists-blog]

Sarah,

I agree with basically everything you said. This case is really interesting to me because of how close to the thin line it comes. Is it inspiration or copyright infringement?? It seems to be up to the person, but I do agree with the article you mentioned that the case was too closely focusing on the character of Thicke than on the actual law and the songs that supposedly violated the law. I wouldn’t have sided with Gaye’s family, just due to the fact that the law states that Gaye owned the sheet music, not the “feel” of the song. Many artists are inspired by certain people or eras of the past, and “Blurred Lines” reflected the feel and vibe of the 70′s. Just like one of the articles said, Gaye own his song, not the whole 70′s decade. 

[ashleah04-blog]

I’m kinda wondering if perhaps the punishment for this sort of thing doesn’t fit the crime. Are companies like Disney perusing to sue and get money back or to be acknowledged? Isn’t it a good thing to have your music advertised in small clips everywhere?The original goal of this sort of law is so you credit where it’s due and don’t profit from someone else’s hard work…. So when an infringement occurs shouldn’t it be that instead of paying huge sums of money one should give the credit to the original owner and pay Only the profits gained if there were profits on exact copies!!!…??? Advertise for the original person and give partial credit when you borrow an idea or “feel”……if it’s accidental then fix it, credit them, and move on. As for legal fees….I’m stumped but I’m sure there’s a solution other than making the looser pay everything (making this sort of thing an enticing business decision for lawyers….?I dunno…)

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

 I think you are totally right! I have always been confused as to why people would be mad if clips of their music or songs were playing in the background it means that these influential people like your music. People will recognize that and see what they are missing out on. I think it would mean more positive money and attention for people like Disney or major music artists because they will only get negative attention if they are always getting mad at people for playing something that it theirs. 

[ashleah04-blog]

I have an aunt who is a gifted pianist. When I was a child (can’t remember how old but less than 10) she entered in to a commonwealth music competition and made it all the way through but lost at the end. I have a clear memory of eating cookies in the kitchen on the day she came home and listening...

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

Ashleah-

I think that you are totally right! It is kind of scary that most artists could be sued now, and this case proves that they could lose. Art is really hard to define in of itself, let alone what copying art is, so that is scary. I’m sorry about your aunt, that is really too bad that people can get away with things like that. I know that companies like Disney are very strict about copyright. Like if someone makes a video and Disney songs are playing on the radio in the background, they may likely get sued. There are copyright scouts for Disney looking all over the internet to sue people or give them a cease and desist notification. And that is scary too because they are so big and powerful that they have the power to just squash people over something very little.  How do you feel about that?

Also, YouTube is an interesting situation as well, for example, a video I watched was a parody of a Taylor Swift song. It was crude and gross, but not copyright infringement because it was very clearly a parody and parody is not copyright infringement. Taylor Swifts people promptly removed the video because they didn’t like it claiming that copyright infringement had occurred. Because they removed the video, all the money he put into that video will not be made back because he will not get ad views. So he out a lot of money. How do you feel about things like this? because this is sort of reverse copyright abuse.

[msuinformationists-blog]

I had not heard much about specifics involving this court case. I knew that Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke were accused of plagiarizing their song, but nothing more. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of “Got to Give it Up” before today. After listing to both songs one after the other, it is obvious...

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

Spotify is an interesting case because artists are compensated for allowing their music to be on the site, but many artists feel they are not properly compensated. So last week Jay-Z launched his new website Tidal. It is the same however artists are given almost fifty percent of the money earned from the site and the biggest contributors are part owners of the website so they make more money that way as well. However, the drawback of Tidal is that the lowest cost of subscription is 12.99. For some this isn’t worth it because you can just use spotify for free or pay 4.99 for a student subscription. However, if you are an avid listener and want to hip with the cool new stuff, this may be the way to go and if you had to pay for each album you were listening to you would pay way more than 12.99/month. Also, Tidal is really cool looking so there’s that. haha

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

The case of the song blurred lines, really does have blurred lines because it is really hard to know what really happened.

Despite the song being really sexist and sort of rude to men who know how to control themselves, if these guys really did violate copyright of a Marvin Gay song, they can…

[msuinformationists-blog]

Sarah,

I agree with basically everything you said. This case is really interesting to me because of how close to the thin line it comes. Is it inspiration or copyright infringement?? It seems to be up to the person, but I do agree with the article you mentioned that the case was too closely focusing on the character of Thicke than on the actual law and the songs that supposedly violated the law. I wouldn’t have sided with Gaye’s family, just due to the fact that the law states that Gaye owned the sheet music, not the “feel” of the song. Many artists are inspired by certain people or eras of the past, and “Blurred Lines” reflected the feel and vibe of the 70′s. Just like one of the articles said, Gaye own his song, not the whole 70′s decade. 

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

I agree, I think that most artists cold be sued for copyright infringement, it is just who actually decides to pursue it that gets money out of it. I don’t honestly know how I feel about this case! sooo confusing, copyright is very confusing because people get emotionally attached to artists and songs and feel that their artists shouldn’t be “attacked”. For example, Justin Bieber has used the choruses of old songs in his songs and his fans are so young they have never heard the original and just don’t get that he completely copied that song. That’s just an example though, I don’t know if Justin Bieber had the rights to those songs or not! haha

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

Week Eleven- Copyright/Fair Use

The case of the song blurred lines, really does have blurred lines because it is really hard to know what really happened. 

Despite the song being really sexist and sort of rude to men who know how to control themselves, if these guys really did violate copyright of a Marvin Gay song, they can afford to pay and probably deserve to. (don’t worry I got lots of memes for this week)

The fact that I don’t like the song and don’t like Robin Thicke is not means for punishing him for the amount of 7.3 million. The only thing that would justify that is if he really did copy the song. The New Yorker article seems to think that Robin’s character was judged and not his song.

I am surprised that this is one of the largest copyright awards given! 7.3 million does not seem like that much when you take in to account that Pharrell Wiillims alone is on the Forbes top 100 list as #38.  

This sort of brings up the question to me, have people run out of things to create?I think most musicians would be sued if all of their songs were really analyzed. Everything sounds like something else, so how can anyone claim copyright infringement? Obviously there are some situations where people will use the exact same lyrics or tune. But the article from LA times linked in this weeks assignment made a good point;

“ Imagine, someone wrote on Twitter, if the James Brown estate were awarded money whenever an artist riffed on that classic J.B. breakbeat.“

Is using someone as inspiration copyright infringement? Pharrell admitted to  Marvin Gay being his inspiration for the song.Is that justification for 7.3 million dollars.

Lots of people are mad about the ruling on this case too, saying that the “feeling” of the song is not means for 7.3 million dollars. Also, many think that the ruling will be thrown out during the appeal process because people on  the jury were too emotionally driven.

What do you guys think? I think that I don’t know how I would rule if I was the judge.

In my daily life, I don’t really think about copyright unless I hear something on the radio and sing another song on top of it because it sounds so similar to something else. A big culprit of this is Religious music, like Christian radio. Whenever I’m in the car with my boyfriends mom, she is listening to Christian Radio. There a couple good songs and a few original bands who are making music to make music and are not riding on the coattails of someone famous. But most of the time, I can sing Katy Perry or Taylor Swift right over the top of the song it is so similar.

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

Week Ten Post- Ashleah’s Week

I find this weeks article on news sources presenting bias very interesting. I like to try and find bias in my news sources to make sure that what I’m reading is not biased.

I know that most things are biased. For example, people who are “pro-life” may describe people who describe themselves as “pro-choice” as “anti-life”, which sounds much more negative. Or someone who is “pro-choice” may describe someone who is not as “against women”. In both cases, regardless of what is true (if that can even be determined) the people on both sides are trying to make the other side look like they are doing something bad or wrong.

In this article, where headlines are reported differently and corrected by various news sources, there are some sensitive issues. News sources don’t want to seem like they are against Israeli people and think they are terrorists, but they also want to report the truth (At least I hope they do). In doing this, they basically lied to their audience and misconstrued the news as less of a big deal than it was. In trying to be sensitive to the issue of terrorism, they called it an “accident” which is not correct either. Simply because you tell the truth does not mean that you are reinforcing stereotype, people will make their decisions about what they believe based on what they know . If all anyone knows is biased news they will believe something without ever hearing the other side of a story and that is really irresponsible journalism.

Do you guys think there are any news sources that don’t display any bias? I think that would be nearly impossible.

[msuinformationists-blog]

Ethics Schmethics?

The article for this week was a good way to inform, educate and caution our selves in a reflective manner. The ethics of writing, citing and publishing research papers has always been a subject in every class I’ve taken, but always been redundant to me. I feel like I’ve learned the same things over and over again: don’t plagiarize, don’t paraphrase (instead restate), and don’t turn in the same article twice (aka self plagiarism). 

I was a little discouraged to see this article because I thought it was just going to be the same thing that I’ve had drilled into my brain all these years. However, I actually learned something new, and gained new insight into my writing practices! Yay!

Something new I learned was about authorship. I knew that authors were ordered based on the amount of input and work they put into the article or project. However, I never really understood how competitive it can be. It really surprised me that papers can be thrown out because the authors couldn’t agree on the order. Being the first name is hugely important. If you happen to be that person and there are two or more other authors who worked on the paper with you, when in text citing, only your name will be mentioned (ex: Walton et al., 2015). You will become the most recognizable name for others in your field, so I can completely understand where the competitive nature is coming from. It had just never crossed my mind just how competitive it can become.

In addition to learning something new, I was also able to reflect on my own practices. I feel like I have a pretty sturdy knowledge base on the correct way in which to cite, rephrase, etc. However, I think something I need to make sure I am aware of is whether or not I self plagiarize. It seems like it could get very exhausting to have to keep track of all the original ideas I’ve come up with from previous research papers. I like the idea the article gave of keeping track of insights I have had, so I can avoid possibly plagiarizing myself later on.

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

It is so weird to me that someone would throw out their research because they can't agree on the order in which to write their names. Doesn't that seem pretty petty? I thought the most important part or doing the research is letting others know what you have found otherwise there was no point. Haha

[ashleah04-blog]

Ethics

When I think of ethics I think of it in terms of my nursing. To be ethical as a nurse is to keep patient information private, to perform my duties in such a way that it puts the needs of my patients first, and to consider the whole picture of said patients life (religion, culture, preferences, family interactions, patient wishes etc.) when providing teaching, care, or administering treatments. I have also considered ethics in terms of my artistic pursuits.

As an artist ethics are viewed in the same light as they are with writing. Plagiarism is a HUGE problem with artists and it is easy to find resources that point out different ways of infringing on another artists intellectual property. I have spent many days staring at my pieces and wondering if I have crossed the line in some way and this is why most of my art work is still sitting on a back shelf somewhere because I have deemed it not entirely my own work.

The article that we read for this week “Writing for Publication: Avoiding Common Ethical Pitfalls.” reaffirmed the anxieties that I have about writing and publication. As with my art it is hard not to imagine all the possible ignorant mistakes I may have done that make my work unethical and harder not to allow those thoughts to hold me back from the recognition my hard work deserves.

There is one more thought that occurred to me as I read this article and is nagging at my knotted anxiety ridden gut…. How often do I write, make art, or even educate using information that I have taken directly from someone else and commit an ethical infringement simply because I have forgotten the source? Sometimes these thoughts make me want to remain uneducated so I can just be ignorant of all my failings because the alternative means sleepless nights and reluctant mornings.

[sarahsfinitewisdom-blog]

You made an interesting point about your artwork. Do you think anything could ever be entirely our own work? I think we are so influenced by others that it would be hard to tell if what we have come up with is original thinking really ever. What do you think?