orion

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Do Not Track (Updated)

Author: Orion Schade 

Episode 1:

For news sites that I visit the most, being BBC, which is tracked by eleven different third party trackers. I put Twitter as a site where I get my entertainment from, which is tracked by two different third party trackers. Between the two, they shared one common tracker, which was Google. The trackers make my consumer profile for me, which leaves behind cookies to record page activity. The cookies are turned into ads that seem to fit in with my use profile. Trackers don’t operate with Amazon, we create the material through search histories and purchases that Amazon uses to create our user profiles. Our data footprint impacts the individual. There are very few ways of avoiding being tracked. There is the easy way to avoid it, by not going online, but you can disable cookies and block ads through various softwares and websites. But through the use of email and social media, we still can be tracked through our personal information, also giving up our privacy through the usage of these things. Episode 2: Cookies and advertisements were difficult to control when they were first introduced, which is why online tracking became what it is today. Advertisements were needed for the websites to make money, cookies were there to track usage online, and together they created personalized advertisements to fit the individual's profile. Pop-up ads were not successful and they were easy to ignore. Online advertising started as random to now a completely personalized experience through the use of cookies. I wouldn’t pay much for Facebook or Google, I would just limit my usage of the sites and not go on them as often. It is possible to block cookies from being tracked through settings on smartphones, and websites are now allowing you to block cookies being tracked. Although the initial blocking is successful, you are still trackable with “zombie cookies”, even without you knowing it.

Episode 3: Through the use of “like mining”, websites can successfully predict a lot about me, including: my personality, race, age, gender, and various interests of mine. Credit card companies can use this information to see whether or not I am a good candidate for a loan. The Illumines pop up was just there to show what information is being gathered about us. There are algorithms that can describe your character, how you connect with people, how well liked you are, and whether or not you will repay a loan. You are not safe even if you don’t have a Facebook profile. You still create a profile through internet use. Facebook just shows more personal information about you if you use it. Our digital self is something we can control by hiding certain information from people and just sharing with them what we’d like, but the algorithms can take the information and still predict you accurately.

Episode 4:

They use apps to show us how much information we are giving away without really knowing it. They need us to give them this personal information, along with accepting their terms of condition of giving them access for them to do that. Google uses my IP address and GPS to be able to tell where we are accurately. We can disable this, yes, but it doesn’t delete the data previously given. It paints them a picture of our day, who we interact with, our interests, and where we go. Free wifi profits business because of the abundance of information given to them by those who connect to it. What’s in the terms of use is often them asking you to agree to sharing your personal information with them. In Russia a text message was sent out to those at an illegal protest through the tracking of their smartphones, showing them that they were being tracked even without knowing it. You can protect your smartphone by not having apps that could track your personal information at all. Your whereabouts are never protected though, you are constantly trackable no matter what settings you change. Episode 5: Algorithms are codes used to organize the data that is being given to them, by grouping information together or problem solving it. Big data is is data that is too much to organize. The myth was that more data solved all problems, which is false. In order for data to really solve problems, it needs to be analyzed and interpreted in every possible way. It can be discriminatory to minority groups who utilize the internet to get their voices out. We are categorized by our interests, and if we share common interests with one person and the person likes something you don’t, it will be assumed you will also like it and you will be shown it. The algorithms used on social media is just to try and group common interests together.

Episode 6:

Filter bubbles are things that are recommended to you based on what you have liked in the past and through algorithms. We see things that we’re supposed to based on what we have shown we liked. It impacts what we see online because it only shows us partial truths due to our interests and never shows us the other side of things that would challenge our thinking. Our filter bubble doesn’t show us things that they think we will find relevant. With old media, it was easy because it just showed one opinion, and nothing as personal for the news as it is today. Optimization is giving you news that algorithms think that you will like rather than challenge your views.

Episode 7: They felt that computers could lengthen and improve lives, but also was concerned that privacy invasions could be a thing. They were hopeful and thought that the internet would make the world better off, which didn’t stay that way. Edward Snowden crashed it by showing that all the networks and connections we did made it easy to get spied on. After 9/11, everyone felt that they needed security. We gave up privacy to have more security, and the line between the two is hard to distinguish. Top-down data use is when a higher power looks down and sees a problem to fix it in their own way, and bottom-up processing has communities reflecting on problems and unmask systems of power. We are not building a society that we like, and we need to work together to make it something that we like again. My profile was Big Win, and I’m not afraid of it because it’s the most ideal way of building a society that relies on internet as much as we do. We need to find a way to make it so we have an equal share of power, not allowing the companies to have it all over us. Privacy matters because the individual has the right to keep their personal lives to themselves, but the internet makes it impossible to keep your life private. We can reclaim our privacy by figuring out ways around sharing as much as we do online and utilizing tools that people have made to make sure that we are not getting constantly tracked and leaving our footprints. The future of our privacy may be nonexistent if we don’t do anything to stop what’s going on. Source: Do Not Track 

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Do Not Track

Author: Orion Schade Episode 1: Although from time to time I see news on the few social media platforms that I use, for more academic news stories, I use bbc.com, which was my primary news source that I used for the first episode of Do Not Track. As for more entertaining things, I find that twitter.com has a variety of posts from those I follow and who they retweet from, which I also used as my goof off website. After submitting my websites, Do Not Track calculated how many third party trackers were connected to the websites and tracking me, which ended up being 13 from bbc and 2 from twitter. The third party trackers from bbc.com were none that I had ever heard of before (may have been from other countries, I didn’t know for sure), but both of them shared one connection, which was google.com. Of course these tracking websites know better than to use an amazon profile, I as a user of these sites give them everything that they need, with google directly helping them understand my interests and make them money in the process. My data footprints impacts very little, it’s only impacting my experiences on these websites rather than impacting every other viewer as well. Because we all have different interests, we all impact things a little bit differently. Episode 2: The origins of online tracking come from the need of advertising. Now that we have switched from the Internet being a small and untouched thing to where everyone relies on it for everything, the only way to keep websites from shutting down was from the money that they could earn through advertisements. Cookies come into play with this, because the advertisements we see aren’t random. Cookies are things that track what we do as we browse the web, and make sure that the advertisements you see fit what you have shown are your interests. As discussed in the episode, pop-up ads were created to try and avoid having the advertisement next to things they didn’t agree with (Ford ads with an anal sex website), and they were extremely effective in what they were created for. Easy to get rid of, and companies still got to make the money they were in need of through it. Now that the internet is more personalized it has changed it completely, even if it seems like the changing Internet Economy might be raising  privacy concerns. If we want to have privacy back on the Internet, we would have to return to how things were when it was first created. Episode 3: The absent-minded ‘likes’ on social media have made it so websites can accurately describe your character and personality with the algorithms they use to do so. Creepily enough, the algorithms can also go deeper than that and predict if you will pay back loans, and your health choices through those by looking at your likes and the people you speak to the most. There doesn’t seem to be many social benefits to having algorithms. The significance of having a second digital self is having someone that you have created for people to see, and that can be controlled. With that being said, as we got to see what the algorithms told us about ourselves through a simple thing like a page like on facebook, it’s easy for me to say that we might not be as protected as we thought we were.

Episode 4: With the Internet being as big as it is and how accessible it has become, smartphones are essentially small computers that we carry around with us. Apps were a crucial part to the entire episode. They need us to be willing to accept to things to continue to use them for them to function, even if we’re accepting things we didn’t read through before doing so. I have 16-30 apps on my phone, which seems to be common for smartphone users. Google tracks us accurately because it uses things like: our IP address, GPS signals, wifi, along with others from apps we didn’t expect (ie: flashlight). Google themselves has said that no, there is no way to disable them. With our use of wifi and location, even if we attempt to disable things, the information will not go away and is still trackable. It opens up and paints a picture of our daily lives, what we do, where we go, who we speak with, and everything else. With free wifi, it allows the businesses you visit to earn money and also allow you to become more trackable, as they can see your location. In Russia, a text message was sent out to those at a riot telling them that what they were doing was illegal, which told those at the rally that they were being spied on, resulting in them having to be more cautious with what they were doing. It does, in a sense, impact us individually, but nothing that we are aware of. No matter what we do to try and prevent the tracking, it will always be there as we have allowed these smartphone apps to do whatever they’d like with our information, tracking included. You are tracked by your location and behaviors no matter what you do. Episode 5: While big data is a collection of information from an entire population of people, algorithms is used to try and sort out individual pieces of information to predict what individual people prefer with the data they shared. A big myth is the more data collected the less problems people will face, which is false. A social problem of algorithms is simply providing information that they can use and manipulate to give you what they think would be another thing you enjoy. The only thing that gives data a voice is the algorithms that are used once it’s all sorted, otherwise the large amounts of data would just stay large amounts of data, or ‘big data’. Episode 6: The personalization of the Internet through advertisements and the information that you see through social media platforms is what a filter bubble is. Using those third party trackers that creates the cookies for them to see what you search for and seem to enjoy, is how they provide for you your own personal news or generally things that the algorithms think you will enjoy seeing. It impacts the truth because what you are seeing is your own biases -- what you are seeing is the truth but only from one lens. Where old media wasn’t nearly as filtered as it is now, because they had no way to filter things for people, that method is gone completely for the most part. Optimization is making everyone happy and functional. The old media is gone, and now the Internet is optimizing news and other things to keep everyone in the mindset of their choosing and never seeing the complete story, just one that they have created themselves. Episode 7: The utopian perspective with the Internet first being released was that it would improve everyone's lives and do good. Where certain aspects of day to day life got easier (communication, the ability to look for answers instantly), it wasn’t shown that it wasn’t as helpful as they first thought it was until Edward Snowden ‘crashed’ the party. He revealed how much and what specifically the NSA was tracking on users of the Internet -- so every citizen of the United States, for security reasons. Also revealing that search engines were tracking for business (advertisement) purposes, he just showed us that we aren’t as safe and secure on the internet as we thought we were. 9/11 made everyone feel like we need more security and surveillance  and also wanting to keep our privacy. Now we reach a Catch 22: In order to have more security, we will need to let go of our privacy, as neither can coexist with each other perfectly. We have more security, we now just have the added bonus of knowing that our government is tracking what we do for their own reasonings. Top-down data is data sorted from most to least important, while bottom-up is a community coming together to solve problems. I do not believe for a moment that we are building a society to be proud of, instead we are going backwards with our growth. I personally got the Big Win profile as the profile with the highest percentage, which didn’t scare me whatsoever and comforted me into hoping that we could achieve that. If George Orwell’s 1984 taught us anything, it is that Big Brother is always watching us -- and we have allowed it as a society, which seems to be the state that we are currently gravitating towards unless things start to change.

https://donottrack-doc.com/en/episodes/

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Myanmar as a Knowledge Economy

Paige Kim Orion

Introduction: 

A knowledge economy is based on the belief  where infrastructure is based on the quantity, quality, and accessibility of the information within the country's economy rather than on the means of production (Knowledge economy).The idea of knowledge economy first appeared in 1960s.  The economy in first world countries shifted from traditional economies where the focus of companies was on marketing and production, to what is now known as a knowledge economy where companies focus of collecting information and data to use as a source of sales. “In a world where fast access to information is vital, internet availability rules. Governments looking to push their nations towards a knowledge economy put technology development at the heart of their strategies. In this sense, the prize for every country is to have its own Silicon Valley of internet-based start-ups and innovative small businesses” (Piotrowski, 2015). Myanmar currently ranks 117th out of 143 of the Knowledge Economy Index. Preventing the economy from improving and moving forward is the lack of a stable education system. Academic programs fall far behind the standards of international or ASEAN. This has caused universities and programs to be cut off from the outside world, preventing them from improving. Also, Myanmar Global Per Capita practically did not move between 1900 to 1990, while other countries quadrupled. This has had a long lasting effect on the labor rates, and the local economy. “Myanmar adds only $1,500 of economic value in a year of work, around 70% less than the average of seven other Asian economies” (Goodman, 2013). In March 2013, the United States, 10 of its universities, and the Institute of International Education developed and executed a  higher education initiative that seeks to help advance and rebuild Myanmar’s education capacity. 

Evaluation (The Four Pillars): 

Quality Education System: The system in the past has fallen way below standards and has jeopardized the ability to obtain and keep a knowledge economy, however, the new initiative is seeking to improve standards and set academic programs on track to be able to support such an economy. 

High-speed Broadband Infrastructure: Less than ten percent of the population use technology in Myanmar, Samsung has moved into the country earlier as is a lead marketer while  working with local partners to expand use and distribution. 

Public Support for Innovation: Universities and the Institute of International Education are helping to promote academic education and research. 

Quality of Governance: Past uprisings have had an economical impact on Myanmar’s foreign relations. The government is unstable with continuous religious conflicts. But, the government is trying to resolve issue and implementing plans such as the seven year tourism development master plan worth US$500 million.  

What challenges face your country in transitioning to a knowledge-based economy? 

Until 2012, publications (i.e: newspapers, cartoons, advertisements) had to be pre-approved from the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division before being published. In August 2012, censorship lifted significantly and citizens no longer had to submit their work before being published. The censorship also included internet access, until 2012. With the lift of the restrictions of information being released unless pre-approved, the 1% of the population that used the internet has risen to 12.6% in 2015. In 2015, 55% of the populations data users were mobile users. source 

What opportunities face your country in transitioning to a knowledge-based economy? 

With the amount of resources that Myanmar has and thrives in (oil, gas production, pipelines, dams, roads, railroads) they could easily thrive and become a strong country, however, they need to adjust to what is the ‘modern’ world, such as: switch from agricultural to manufacturing, establishing trading, allow tourism, allow other countries to invest in the land, and work on urbanizing the country. 

What Does The Knowledge Economy Mean For Individuals?:

Upskilling is defined as “teach(ing) (an employee) additional skills.” It can also refer to potential employees having to learn additional skills before they even begin work at their respective companies. In recent years there has been a call to employers to help with the upskilling of their employees; this tends to include providing them with apprenticeships, on-the-job training that equips workers with skills to advance to better jobs, and often supporting those employees which express a desire to earn a degree from a community college or four-year university. What this has led to is the practice of some companies to help with the education of their employees so that those people can earn the potential to move up in the corporate ladder. 

What this means for individuals looking to be hired into the knowledge economy is that they have more opportunity to rise into a well-paying job even if they were not able to attend college right out of high school. Since the knowledge economy requires people to have a more thorough understanding of the workings of the internet, upskilling is increasingly important. Before the internet acted as our center hub of economy, upskilling was minimal because most technologies used were not difficult to learn and therefore a person could learn on the job. Now it is common for most employees to use some form of internet and computer combination, even working in retail or food service, but in the past only people who specifically worked with computers, like scientists, video game developers, and the like, had to work with computers. Since those jobs already required a college degree, upskilling was rarely utilized as a way to train those employees. Now that everyone has to learn to use a computer and the internet, upskilling is more vital to a company because then it has more trained people who are capable of many jobs.

In such a place as Myanmar, where most of the economy is still agricultural and where the internet is a rare resource, the practice of upskilling is not only underutilized for the workers there but it is almost completely unnecessary. Myanmar suffers greatly from its lack of a formal education system for adults; see above for more information on that, however before the companies there can truly upskill their workers, they first have to establish a higher education system with colleges. Only with those established will upskilling be a possibility in Myanmar. We have seen that upskilling is highly successful in other countries (especially the USA) and so Myanmar should make that a goal of theirs, as it will allow them to further join the knowledge economy. Sources:

M.Brain, 2015.”The opportunities and risks on investing in Myanmar.” Retrieved Januay 20, 2016 (https://www.m-brain.com/insights/geographies/emerging-markets/the-opportunities-and-risks-of-investing-in-myanmar/) Dictionary, 2016. “knowledge power”. Retrieved January 20, 2016. ( Knowledge Economy) Piotroski, Jan, 2015. “What is a knowledge economy?” Retrieved January 20, 2016. (http://www.scidev.net/global/knowledge-economy/feature/knowledge-economy-ict-developing-nations.html) World Bank, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2016. (http://knoema.com/atlas/topics/World-Rankings/Knowledge-Economy-Index/Education-Index?baseRegion=MM) Goodman, Allan, 2015. “Developing Myanmar’s knowledge economy”. Retrieved January 20, 2016. (http://www.asiapathways-adbi.org/2013/12/developing-myanmars-knowledge-economy-improving-higher-education-through-international-cooperation/) Wikipedia, 2015. “Internet in Myanmar”. Retrieved January 20, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Myanmar Wikipedia, 2015. “Censorship in Myanmar”. Retrieved January 20, 2016. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Myanmar) No author. “Has the frontier country finally arrived?”. Retrieved January 20, 2016. (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/rushing-myanmar-will-foreign-investments-pay/) Chhor, Heang, 2013. “Unique opportunities, major challenges”. Retrieved January 20, 2016. (http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/asia-pacific/myanmars_moment)

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Journalistic Ethics & Wikileaks: The Pro Side

by: Hannah Smaby, Devon Christian, Kiele Char, Kaela Fiesta, Orion Schade, Juliana Guyt, Maria Corbett, Nick Adamson, Kristen Toguchi, Paige Kester, Larissa Reynoso, AJ Nelson, Micah Nakamoto, Mariam Rija, and Eamonn Hartmann 

The Basics: 

What is WikiLeaks?

According to technologyreview.com , Wikileaks  is a “self-described ‘not-for-profit media organization,’ launched in 2006 for the purposes of disseminating original documents from anonymous sources and leakers.” Also, according to BBC News reporter, Jonathan Fildes, “Wikileaks has dominated the news, both because of its steady drip feed of secret documents, but also because of the dealings of its enigmatic front man Julian Assange.“Additionally, according to Anita’s Notebook, “And if we could develop a system whereby we could maximize the number of those disclosures, and get them out to the press and everyone else, we could increase the amount of just reform going on in the world. But that’s actually not such an easy thing to do. It seemed like it would be relatively easy.. We knew, I’ve been an investigative journalist for a long time, that actually getting documents is not so hard. The problem is publishing them and keeping them up in the face of attacks, both economic and legal.” Also, according to Anita’s Notebook, “…Picture representing information flow in the digital realm.So we decided to come up with a system that would help us do this, to pull in material from all over the world. From people in China who were facing oppression to journalists who couldn’t get things past the editors. We decided to take the hardest publishing case and become specialists in publishing the unpublishable.” According to Quora, “The reason for their current problems is the release of many very sensitive documents about the US military. Bradley Manning provided these documents and WikiLeaks published them. The reason why the website is somewhat silent is the lack of funding they receive due to a blockage by Visa and Paypal, among others. All their funding goes to legal aid and maintaining servers.”

Who is Julian Assange?

“The only way to keep a secret is to never have one.”  –Julian Assange

Julian Assange a 45 year old Australian who is best known as the founder, editor-in-chief, and director of the website WikiLeaks which is a website that publicly publishes secret information obtained from anonymous informants. He is an extremely interesting individual that has lived a highly controversial life. Even as a child he was a bit out of the ordinary. He never met his biological father, who left his mother before he was even born, and instead was raised by his step-father. His step-father was involved in traveling theater and in result of this, Julian had lived in over 30 locations in Australia by the time he was a teenager. As a teenager he discovered his passion and skill for computer hacking. He began to ethically hack with a group of his friends in 1987 under the name “Mendax”. He and his comrades hacked large organizations including NASA, Stanford University, Motorola, and even the U.S. Department of Defense facilities, among many others. Information regarding his personal life is limited, but sources say he was married to a woman named Teresa in his teens and had a son named Daniel in 1989. They split later on and there was a large legal battle for custody of the boy. His hacking activities were revealed in the early 1990s and he was eventually charged with 31 counts of hacking related crimes in 1994. He pleaded guilty to 25 of those charges in 1996 and was only penalized with fines. He enrolled at the University of Melbourne to study mathematics in 2003 but dropped out without completing his degree in 2006. That same year, Julian began the site that would lead to controversy of catastrophic proportion, Wikileaks. The site was not officially launched until 2007 and in three short years the site had gained huge popularity. The arguably most impactful release of information was the infamous Collateral Murder video in 2010. Not only is the site known for it incredible impact, it is also known for its size. By 2015, WikiLeaks has published more than 10 million documents and associated analyses! Creating the site was not the only controversial act that Julian committed. In 2010, two warrants for his arrest were put out, one for rape and another for molestation. He claimed there were no bases for these accusations and pleaded innocent. In 2015 the charges for molestation were dropped. The accusations of rape have yet to be dealt with. Although some may hate him for his controversial journalism, some highly respect him. In 2010 he received the Sam Adams Award for being a “whistleblower” and promoting transparency in the government. He is one of only 14 people who have received this award. Many influential figures have a wide range of critics from idolizers to those who despise, and Julian Assange is no exception. There are many different opinions of this man, what is yours?

What happened?

The Leaking of Diplomatic Cables to the Public

Wikileaks received their classified information about the diplomatic cables through submissions from anonymous whistleblowers. A whistleblower is a person who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, unethical, or not correct within an organization that is either private or public. Chelsea (at the time Bradley) Manning was accused for leaking the unauthorized downloaded material to Wikileaks. This accusation is due to the diplomatic cables marked with “Sipdis”, meaning “secret internet protocol distribution”, which comes from the U.S. SIPRNet that the U.S. Department of Defense uses. What prevented the U.S. government from convicting Manning in the beginning was from the fact that more than three million government personnel and soldiers have access to that specific network. The motive that was pinned on Manning for leaking the information is due to the troubles he had of being a homosexual and being restricted to talk about his sexual orientation because of the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” rule. Wikileaks released the information given to them because they believed that the public should understand what is happening with the government and know how it affects them. Also, the anonymous submissions may be given by those who disagree with what is happening.

Information Contained by the Cables

The cables released by Wikileaks, contained information ranging from Obama administration’s exchanges over crises and conflicts, to a cable under the name of Reyjavik13 that revealed the banking crisis in Iceland. With over 250,000 American diplomatic cables released, it’s not difficult to find cables pertaining to the operation of Guantanamo Bay and the bargaining to empty the prison located in Cuba. Or cables containing the daily traffic between the State Department and some 270 embassies and consulates

What were the implications?

What do the Cables Reveal?

Wikileaks revealed classified diplomatic cables that had been sent to the U.S State Department by 274 of its consulates, embassies, and diplomatic missions around the world. Dated between December 1966 and February 2010, the cables contain diplomatic analysis from world leaders, and the diplomats’ assessment of host countries and their officials. The first document, the so-called Reykjavik 13 cable, was released by WikiLeaks on February, 18th 2010, and was followed by the release of State Department profiles of Icelandic politicians a month later. This publication of the cables was the third in a series of U.S. classified document “mega-leaks” distributed by WikiLeaks in 2010, following the Afghan war document leak in July, and the Iraq war document leak in October. Over 130,000 of the cables are unclassified, some 100,000 are labeled “confidential”, around 15,000 have the higher classification “secret”, and none are classified as “top secret” in this classification scale.

The contents of the U.S. diplomatic cables leak describe in detail events and incidents surrounding international affairs from 274 embassies. These diplomatic cables revealed numerous unguarded comments and revelations: critiques and praises about the host countries of various U.S. embassies, discussion and resolutions towards ending ongoing tension in the Middle East, efforts for and resistance against nuclear disarmament, actions in the War on Terror, assessments of other threats around the world, dealings between various countries, U.S. intelligence and counterintelligence efforts, U.S. support of dictatorship and other diplomatic actions.

International Relations

Prior to the release of the diplomatic cables, it was largely unknown that tyrannical and brutal dictator of Egypt Hosni Mubarak existed, let alone that he was supported and backed by the U.S. government during his 30 year reign of the country.  According to Frontline, the release of the documents exposed corruption in foreign relations and sparked an outrage amongst the Tunisian people, which started a cascade effect within the Arab world, including the eventual overthrow of Mubarak and other dictators and a widespread regional revolution later dubbed the Arab Spring (frontline, 2011; Bachrach, 2011).  Amnesty International dubbed WikiLeaks and the Guardian newspaper as “catalysts” for the Arab Spring (Walker, 2011).

The public, especially the American people, finally becoming aware and having physical evidence of the widespread corruption related to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries was polarizing, as some leaped to defend the actions of the government while others grew despondent and even more skeptical of U.S. foreign policy and America’s role in the wars and in other countries.

Another impact of the leaks was on the U.S. government and other nations such as the UK, Finland and Germany in terms of diplomatic relationships (Karhula, 2012).

What were the responses to the situation?

The Portrayal of War in Popular Media

According to Julian Assange, the documents that were leaked revealed a broader and more pervasive level of violence than what the military and media reveals. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/26wiki.html) However, the media’s lack of publishing the war was due to the fact that their sources (military, journalists, government) wouldn’t share as much information with them to protect civilians and themselves in many cases. The amount of information actually published was about 5% of the total news coverage (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/business/media/20coverage.html), and when the information was leaked from Manning, it shocked everyone to see just how little they actually knew about what was going on in the war. It is far easier to hide the information from the media along with the citizens of the countries involved in order to protect themselves and avoid backlash if the truth were found out, and so long as they share the bare minimum, no one questions what’s going on. Since the Manning documents leakings, however, now large media sites like NPR.org, huffingtonpost.com, and nytimes.com are beginning to question the reasons for lack of news sharing from the beginning.

Where Does the Controversy Arise From?

The “whistleblowing” website WikiLeaks has become a dividing and controversial issue for exposing classified information and claimed that the leaks harm national security and compromise international diplomacy. This made civil rights organizations reconsider their stand on Wikileaks. They agree on the undeniable value that Wikileaks has had by indicating violations of human rights and civil liberties. Also there is a controversial issue with the founder himself, Julian Assange. To his supporters, he is a valiant campaigner for truth. And to his critics, he is a publicity-seeker who has endangered lives by putting a ton of information into the public domain.  

Journalistic Decision-Making and Ethics:

The Controversy of the Publication of Leaked Documents by the New York Times

NY Times decision to publish the leaked documents is very controversial as far as legality and ethics is concerned. The leaked documents contain classified information and names and locations of diplomats, informants, and other confidential and secretive personnel. Indeed, after they publish some of the documents they were met with a slew of questions demanding what right they had to release said information (Bill Keller, NY Times, 11/2010). The controversy was mostly over whether or not it was right to release the documents as it could potentially endanger those whose names are mentioned in the cables. While it is true that many of the names were redacted some of the leaked cables were published in full. However, the Times took the necessary steps to make sure that confidential informants and issues of national security were not in danger of being released to the public. In fact the Times encouraged other news and media outlets to do the same in order to protect those people and the countries involved. Some people still questioned the NY Times decision to release this information claiming it was a breach of privacy and harmed national security. The NY Times took publication a step further and sent the cables to the Obama administration and received further instruction on redaction. Despite the ethical and responsible steps that the NY Times took in order to protect informants and national security their decision to publish was still called into controversy by some of the public. However, the NY Times acted ethically and responsibly and revealed sensitive information in a way that protects those that need protection while calling to account those that need to speak for their words and actions.

Reasons for The New York Times Reporting these Cables

Freedom of the press was one of the main reasons that The New York Times published the leaked cables.  This notion helps to withhold the democracy that America was founded on and allows the public to praise as well as critique the media when something is published falsely or out of context.  The cables also provide media consumers with a better, uncut understanding of how foreign policy is working in America (Keller, 2010).  In “A Note to Readers: The Decision to Publish Diplomatic Documents,” The New York Times wrote that “the documents serve an important public interest, illuminating the goals, successes, compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy in a way that other accounts cannot match.”  Also included in The Times’ note was their collective concern with the possible dangerous that could arise when they published the cables.

The New York Times’ Stance About what Should be Published

The Times have chosen to publish some of these leaked cables, but have chosen to exclude some details that could potentially endanger the U.S.  These actions were shared with other news organizations and WikiLeaks with the hope that they would also edit their documents.  Editors at The Times carefully check to make sure that they withhold any confidential information that could be useful to war adversaries.  The goal of the New York Times is to, “tell the unvarnished story of how the government makes its biggest decisions, the decisions that cost the country the most heavily in lives and money” (NY Times, 2010).  The Times wants the American public to understand what is going on behind closed doors.

Take a stance:

Are These Decisions Ethical?

Based on the idea that having knowledge is generally beneficial for the citizens of the United States, the decision to leak the documents can be seen as a right of the people to know the machinations of their government, and therefore this was an ethical action. Understanding the US government’s dealings with other countries can allow its citizens to police each other (as in the video shown by Julian Assange that showcased the relentless violence used in Afghanistan and Iraq). It has encouraged citizens of other countries to overthrow their corrupt governments and lead them to a revolution (as was the case in Egypt and other Arab nations). Since the government of the US exists to serve the people, the idea that allowing all its citizens to know its dealings is somehow a disservice or violation of privacy to the government is ridiculous. If the government truly serves the people, then it should not matter if the people know about governmental actions, especially as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the existence of Guantanamo Bay have repeatedly been defended as a way to ensure the safety of the U.S. citizens.  If the government and our elected officials are working to protect us and serve our best interests, then discussions in clandestine meetings with other nations and details on the daily lives of our soldiers, who are funded by our taxpayer dollars, should not be a concern.  It should already be the duty of the government to provide us with the information about where are money is going and how are country is acting on the global scale, and because the government was not doing its job properly and was hiding embarrassing and violent injustices from the country, exposing their actions was the right thing to do….

The Argument For Government Transparency

Increased visibility to governmental procedures and documents is crucial for establishing support from those that the government is elected to represent. In terms of the information that was released by the WikiLeaks site, the departments who had sensitive information released are publicly funded. The people of the United States are the ones who paid taxes for the military to function and therefore should have some knowledge to where the money is going and what it is doing. This is also applicable to the global view of a country. When the United States is under scrutiny on a global scale, the nation will be more careful with the decisions made as well who are publicly displayed as allies or enemies.

If the government was really transparent, citizens can truly see what is going on. The fact is that the media that the public sees doesn’t always show the the full story, that certain actions that may seem controversial be hidden from the public’s view. It lets the people know actually what’s going on and what they’re government and governments around the world are actually doing. Government transparency can lead to less scandals and corruption with government officials or between governments. Through some of the material that was released on WikiLeaks site shows the truth, like China’s intrusion in Google’s computer system in that country or the potential corruption in the Afghan government.

Public Access to Information

Today, the public is given information about the government and diplomacy through the broadcasting of meetings and press conferences where government officials deliver such information. This can be viewed and listened to through different sources of media such as television, the Internet, or radio. Only some information about the government and diplomacy is released to the public. By being knowledgeable about  certain information, the government and higher authorities are able to keep the nation safe. Specific details of plans, ideas, and actions of those protecting us are kept from the public so that our safety is maintained. Executive Order 13526 sets forth “a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying national security information”. The U.S. Department of State says that one must be granted security clearance to access classified information. In conclusion, to some extent, the public should have unfettered access to information about the government and diplomacy. What is kept from the public keeps the public protected. The public should be able to ask about things that concern them.

Works Cited List

“A Note to Readers: The Decision to Publish Diplomatic Documents.” The New York Times. The

New York Times, 28 Nov. 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

“A Selection From the Cache of Diplomatic Dispatches.” The New York Times. The New York

Times, 27 Nov. 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

“Amnesty International Hails WikiLeaks and Guardian as Arab Spring ‘catalysts’” The Guardian.

The Guardian, 12 May 2011. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Anita. “How Did Wikileaks Start And What Is The Goal Behind Their Actions? - Julian Assange

Wikileaks Quotes.” Julian Assange Wikileaks Quotes. N.p., 05 Mar. 2013. Web. 15 Jan.

2016.

“Answers to Readers’ Questions About State’s Secrets.” The New York Times. The New York

Times, 28 Nov. 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Bachrach, Judy. “WikiHistory: Did the Leaks Inspire the Arab Spring?” World Affairs Journal.

World Affairs Journal, July-Aug. 2011. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Doyne, Shannon, and Holly Qjalvo. “The Ethics of the War Logs: Debating the Pros and Cons of

WikiLeaks.” The Learning Network The Ethics of the War Logs Debating the Pros and

Cons of WikiLeaks Comments. The New York Times, 29 Oct. 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Fildes, Jonathan. “What Is Wikileaks? - BBC News.” BBC News. BBC, 7 Dec. 2010. Web. 15

Jan. 2016.

Jacquette, Rogene Fisher. “Rights Groups Join Call for WikiLeaks to Censor Afghan Files.” At

War Rights Groups Join Call for WikiLeaks to Censor Afghan Files Comments. The New

York Times, 10 Aug. 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

“Julian Assange Biography.” - Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline. The Famous People

Society for Recognition of Famous People, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

“Julian Assange.” Julian Assange. NNDB, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

“Julian Assange Sex Assault Allegations: Timeline - BBC News.” BBC News. BBC, 12 Oct. 2015.

Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Karhula, Päivikki. “What Is the Effect of WikiLeaks for Freedom of Information?” IFLA –. IFLA,

n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Landler, Mark, and J. David Goodman. “Clinton Says U.S. Diplomacy Will Survive ‘Attack’.” The

New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Nov. 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Mazzetti, Mark. “U.S. Expands Role of Diplomats in Spying.” The New York Times. The New

York Times, 28 Nov. 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

McKey, Robert. “WikiLeaks Reports Attack on Its Web Site.” The Lede WikiLeaks Reports Attack

on Its Web Site Comments. The New York Times, 28 Nov. 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Noort, Rogier. “What Is WikiLeaks?” - Quora. Quora, 14 Mar. 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Sauter, Molly, and Jonathan Zittrain. “Everything You Need to Know About Wikileaks.”

MIT Technology Review. MIT, 09 Dec. 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Schmitt, Eric. “In Disclosing Secret Documents, WikiLeaks Seeks ‘Transparency’.” The New York

Times. The New York Times, 25 July 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Shane, Scott, and Andrew W. Lehren. “Leaked Cables Offer Raw Look at U.S. Diplomacy.” The

New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Nov. 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

Tate, Julie. “Bradley Manning Sentenced to 35 Years in WikiLeaks Case.” Washington Post. The

Washington Post, 21 Aug. 2013. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

“United States Diplomatic Cables Leak.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Jan.

2016.

“Whistleblower.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

“WikiLeaks Video.” PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

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Publishing Industry

http://scha9813.tumblr.com/

Definition:

Publishing is “to issue printed or otherwise reproduced textual or graphic material, computer software, etc. for sale or distribution to the public.” (Dictionary.com)

It allows individuals to express their creativity and their products. Publishing is a market that provides jobs as well as products, it allows societies to express their culture through the marketing of products and the creation of the products by individuals in said culture.

History:

With the advancement and innovations of technology and social change, publishing was and still is a key factor in the spread of literacy. Publishing was first seen in ancient Greece, China, and Rome in the 6th century. The value of publishing came from the development of writing, most of which took place due to religion. Printing then developed in Europe in the 11th century. Most of the credit for the advancement of publishing in Europe is given to Johannes Gutenberg in Germany. However many of the inventions had been developed earlier in China, and as a result were brought to Europe through the Arabic travellers. Gutenberg’s did play a key point with the inventions of “movable metal type, ink, paper, and press” (Tucker). With the newly freed western Europe and North America  of the18th century, publishing became a large role in society. Literacy and education expanded with the creation of efficient publishing and standards. From the 19th century onward, publishing became a large role in societies economies, offering occupations, innovation through creators, a new market with numerous products, and a financial risk with much to gain.

Value chains:

Since publishing is more hands on with the publishing company and those wanting their work to be published, they tend to follow a separate value chain compared to businesses. Always interacting face to face or through the use of emails or telephone conversations, both parties always are in the loop with one another and if there are extra steps needing to be done, both will know about it.

Publisher jobs in Portland Oregon:

Unfortunately, either due to the popularity of such a job or how scarce job openings can be, there are not very many publishing job opportunities in Portland right now. (http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=publishing&l=Portland%2C+OR) Rather than seeing publishing jobs available, you see book retail positions needing to be filled, which proves the scarceness of a job as a publisher. Whoever wishes to be a publisher does not have many options to become that, and rather needs to take up work in bookstores, newspaper companies, or anything along those lines to fulfill their wishes of publishing, as that is the closest thing they would get to becoming that in Portland.

While few jobs may not be available for hopeful publishers, according to Seattle PI (http://education.seattlepi.com/study-college-become-book-publisher-1413.html), requirements vary with the different options of the publishing field. An english, literature, and journalism major requires a Bachelors Degree, while business and technology majors just need to make sure that they understand writing and selling abilities behind publishing. All fields of work need internships to really grasp what publishing and being a publisher feels like.

While getting work published is between the publisher and the person who sought them out for the work to be published, the only time that there is a middleperson is when they negotiate cost for the publishment of the artist, writer, ect. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishing) Otherwise the process of publishing is very connected and personal.

Debates:

The problems that have arisen in the publishing community since the dawn of technology is just innovation and welcoming the wave of technology to aid them through their publishing processes. The lack of innovation is hurting them as publishers, because their potential customers (the person bringing them their work to be published), may not enjoy the lack of personal feeling and they will leave, losing the publishing company money. The lack of using technology is losing them work as well, as a lot of young writers opt to now publish their writings,artworks, and music on various websites like: tumblr.com, etsy.com, fanfiction.net, soundcloud.com, bandcamp.com, youtube.com – all free websites that can promote their art and writing to possibly get money through doing it, at the very least getting their works promoted and gaining a following and popularity. If publishing companies saw what they were neglecting, the publishing businesses wouldn’t do as poorly as they have been, and start picking up work and artists who deserve the recognition.

Exploitation:

In the publishing industry many resources have presented more opportunities for publishing, especially digital publishing. Self publishing and the open access movement have made it easier for creators to display their work. However, this new access has come with complications.The open access movement has increased the number of scholarly publishers (Beall, 2012). According to Beall to  “become a scholarly publisher, all you need now is a computer, a website, and the ability to create unique journal titles.”  Although consumers may enjoy the newly increased access to scholarly journals, these journals now become burdened with the demand of unworthy journals so that the publishers may appease all customers to make a dime, leading to a decrease in the value of scholarly communication.  Another point of view is that with the new resources allowing self publishing, the publication market is being flooded with new material (Nelson, 2009). Nelson admits that self publishing does have a economical value, yeet she states “is this exploitation of romance authors who have been rejected by Harlequin but now have an opportunity to “publish” and a possible entry into traditional Harlequin publishing via a strong self-pub sales record or is this simply another option that empowers authors to get their work out there?” She goes on to claim that these authors who could not get through a publisher are now flooding the market, which is already struggling to handle the current number of products being produced each year. This, Nelson says “is not what the industry needs.”

Location:

In the United States, most publishing takes place in New York. Nathan Bransford points out that there are several effective publishing agencies in Chicago and San Francisco, yet many authors flock to New York. New York has played a large role in the American publishing industry since the early 1800’s. The six largest publishing agencies of America still reside in New York and Bransford says this is due to “The same reason Apple and Google are in Silicon Valley, Wall Street is on Wall Street, and Hollywood is in Hollywood: Industries tend to cluster in certain areas and derive more benefit from drawing upon a talent pool and networking than they lose in increased rent.” Location is everything when it comes to marketing, and for the publishing industry New York is the best location. The city holds the most history and opportunity for the market and thrives within the busy, intellectually advanced culture. About 60 companies hold produce globally. These companies are based out of China, Russia, Europe, and the United States. The more technological and economically advanced a city or country is the larger the role they play in the publishing industry.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag511.htm

http://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/publishing?s=t

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/32426/title/Predatory-Publishing/

http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/mdocs/en/wipo_ip_wk_del_07/wipo_ip_wk_del_07_www_215522.pdf

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/03/why-most-publishers-are-still-in-new.html

http://nelsonagency.com/2009/11/exploitation-or-empowerment/

(http://www.thebookseller.com/news/digital-minds-debates-publishing-innovation)

[angrywhispersbanana-blog]

The Platform Politics of Google

Authors: Orion, Kim, Paige    

History of Google

Google traces its beginnings back to a research project of two Stanford University students in 1995; Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It began as a way to find which websites linked to which places on the web, using Page and Brin’s home website as a base. It was originally called BackRub. “Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant Web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine”. Google as a company was formally incorporated in 1998, having been a search engine with a stanford.edu domain previously. By the end of 1998, many were praising Google as being more effective than the portal sites which existed at the time, namely Yahoo! AOL.com and MSN.com. Google prides itself as a company about doing the most good for its users even if having to forgo gains for themselves. Currently it is one of most popular search engines and has expanded itself into other forms of usage; Google now has an email service, as well as its famed Google Drive which serves as a document creator and storage place.

Features of Google

Google is not a website which is based on a profile that its users create; unlike Facebook or Twitter, Google’s purpose is not in solely connecting people with other individuals. Although having a Gmail and Google Drive account does include the creation of profile, the profile includes very limited information at the start. Usually the name of the user, maybe their location, and a username which serves as their email address. Although, through its various algorithms, google begins to form a profile for its users. Noting what they are searching and how often they spend time on different websites allows its database to suggest places a user might like to visit. Also now that Google is the main operating system on many smartphones, taking your phone everywhere allows google to tell you where it thinks you might like to eat for dinner, or when the bus will come to take you to work.

Google is not designed to be a tool for human to human interaction, although it can lead a person to such interaction. Usually a user’s network of connections is limited to those people that the user has the email address of, although it does allow for the search of users through name. Google is more of a tool for connecting people with other websites, as it is primarily a search engine.

Private communication is not overly complicated when it comes to google because of Gmail. Google also has created an app which links to Gmail and is called Google Hangouts. It is a chat service that connects people through email address books or contacts in a person’s phone, depending upon whether the app is used online or through a phone. Making a person’s own content is also extremely achievable since Google Drive allows for the creation of many different types of documents. However, there is not much of a space or opportunity to publish those creative works through Google. A user can easily share a document with people they are connected with through email, however sharing something that a user created with the general public is not as attainable.

Google has attempted a few times throughout its short history to create a stream based social network that would allow users to connect in real time, such as websites like Facebook allow for. Firstly with Google Buzz and secondly with Google+; neither was a great success because people felt limited in what they could post to Buzz and because by the time Google+ came into being, there were already such an array of social networks that most people felt they would rather stick with the websites they were already on.

The Algorithms of Google

Described in Jourdan Rombough’s article from Optimization Theory, PageRank, founded by Larry Page (Google’s co-founder) designed the site’s algorithm in a way that ranked website’s on a numerical scale of 0-10. The design of PageRank was to be able  to measure the website’s importance and accuracy. Although Page has now moved on from PageRank to Google, PageRank is what Google uses as the basis of sifting through what is most to least important to share with its users. According to a spokesperson from Google, it is assumed that the more important a website is, the more they will receive links from other websites. Essentially, PageRank is there to make sure that the searches that you see are the most valuable and key to what you are trying to search for.

Some types of algorithms displayed:

Answers, books, safe search, site & page quality, user content, news, many more.

Persistence: Although it’s possible that sites lose their rank of importance from PageRank, they are still in the database somewhere and can still be uncovered, although depending on their ranks to begin with, it might be difficult to find.

Replicability: You may be able to replicate information and post it on your own website, but what Google users see most frequently is what PageRank has considered ‘important’ and ranked it higher up.

Scalability: Google narrows searches based off of your location, how you’re accessing the internet (mobile device, computer), and what you have searched for previously or are interested in. Searchability: Google has 21 components to take into account everything they feel will give their users the best information fit to them as possible. Constantly updating and changing what they use, they work hard to keep their users happy with the site.

Dynamics and Social Practices of Google

Google has a goal in which it advocates that the company seeks to change people’s lives by creating and outreaching technology that reinvents how individuals or a society addresses common challenges (Larry Page and Sergey Brin). With this as a main goal, Google is able to impact the dynamic and social practices of the individuals who use the search engine. Instead of going to a library and using a book, or more recently using a librarian to navigate the vast web, individuals are now able to seek answers on their own. In a sense Google’s search engine gives an individual power; however, the individual’s participation with the platform shapes the outcome of the given answers. Algorithms collect data on previous sites visited, and then uses that data to prematch a new site to the individual’s search. The “ I’m feeling lucky” is a prime example of how an individual’s history affects their search. An individual is also able to control the type of search they do by using special features beyond “ I’m feeling lucky” such as Google Scholar and Google+. So while Google has enabled individuals worldwide to have more power in how they search, in has constrained them by the algorithms used to provide feedback to their searches. Individuals can navigate the pages by their person profile, history, bookmarked pages, scholar, and the simple search engine.

How Does Google Fit Into A Polymedia Environment

Communication in this sense is more based on invisible audiences. An author is able to produce information that may or may not be used at that time. Only when an unknown audience uses the search engine to find the site will it be seen. When broadcasting oneself or in search of information, Google is an ideal site. It stores information and enables invisible interactions and connections. These interactions are very mostly anonymous. These connections are open and usually invisible, unless under email or in chat sites intimate or romantic communication does not occur. Communication under Google is more focused on an exchange of information rather than emotion or intimacy.

http://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2013/10/google-search-algorithm-updates-history-log.html

Figure 1: Since its establishment as a search engine in 1997, Google has worked to improve its search capabilities and access to other information. While this infographic does not include everything that Google has added or subtracted from their search engine, it does include most of the major ones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search

https://www.google.com/about/careers/teams/social-impact/

https://www.google.com/about/company/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Google

[scha9813-blog]

Technological Determinism & Social Shaping of Technology / Digital Veillance

Kimberly, Pamela, Devon, Eamonn, Paige, Orion 

Technological Determinism in Minority Report 

The movie attempts to heavily separate itself from hard determinism which holds the viewpoint that technology operates as an autonomous system that humans cannot alter one way or another. In this film, the technology is only based on humans but in fact is reliant upon them and even shuts down after one of the “pre-cogs” (who are humans although advanced) is taken away from the system. As the film progresses, a conclusion is also alluded to that the system can fall apart when a person who has knowledge of the crime can change their actions. Thereby overcoming the technology and rendering the system useless. Our concept of veillance and surveillance is particularly prevalent is this film based on the simple idea that the pre-crime division based entirely on three biologically advanced humans (the pre-cogs) watching over all of the population of Washington DC. This is an example of the few watching the many in order to control their actions, which is also referred to as panoptic surveillance. 

Social Shaping of Technology with Minority Report 

Technology played a major role in enabling murders to be foreseen, in depth analysis of the vision, and then helps the precrime unit locate and arrest the murderer.It highly advanced in each scene of the film, displayed as: cars, the precogs, the precrime unit, marketing by eye scanners, antibiotics, street drugs, and the home of John Anderton. With the overload of technology, society in “Minority Report” relies on technology to go about their lives from shopping to traveling to and from work and home, and even base their career on it. The social shaping of society is a theory founded on the idea that society and technology shape each other but neither is exclusively the cause or effect of the other. One could argue that this film leans towards this viewpoint which holds that the path of innovation of technology is based on society. And since the pre-crime is shut down because of the actions of people (namely Leo Crow and John), the film could support this theory. Although this film could also be used to argue against this theory since the pre-crime division was created as a response to the “homicide epidemic” described in the film which encourages a more simplistic cause and effect relationship.

Minority Report and it’s relation to digital surveillance / veillance 

The film is a great example of the panoptic veillance where the many watch the few. It could be said that the subcategory of ban-optic veillance is also used because those who are determined to commit a crime in the future are singled out by the few and excluded from society so they do not do their predicted actions. The theory of uberveillance could also apply to the film with the vast amount of retinal scans that the people in the film experience as the walk about their daily life. The advertisements were even individualized for the person that walked by them. uberveillance is described in Deborah Lupton’s Theorizing Digital Society as veillance that collects mass amounts of geolocational and biometric data through chips in everyday items that we use or interact with. Sources: Minority Report, 2002  Lupton, Deborah, 2014. “Theorizing Digital Society”

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Simulation

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http://guyt5179.tumblr.com/

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How are they generated?

Technical:

Generated by humans by using varying applications.

ex) java, excel, powerpoint

By “imitating the operation of a real-world process or system over time”.

Model developed

Social:

Used to help educate people on how to respond to a situation without actually having the risk of being in that situation.

ex) military, medical, engineering  

Does it matter if the creator has experience in what they program, or do they just need to know how to code it correctly?

Cultural

Facilitate change

Global, teaching language

Health care, creating and then sharing new methods

What are the technical and material underpinnings of virtual environments and how do they relate to simulation:

The technical and material underpinnings are the hardware and software that make it possible to connect the physical environment to the virtual environment. When this connection between man and machine is made, it is called simulation. Simulations can be used in a variety of situations each using a different software or hardware (Gain and Beer, 2008). These devices are called platforms, different platforms allow an individual to reach the virtual world through simulation of movement of the body such as body tracking, visual display, voice and audio recognition, eye movement. These platforms then allow the individual to partake in the virtual world while reading their movements. After the connection is made the simulation can occur. The connection allows the individual to partake in the simulation weather it be a medical procedure, bike race, or a flight simulator.

What effect or affect do simulations have on us and our perception of reality? Our ability to know the world?

Computer systems use algorithms and equations to make behaviors of what is being modeled. A simulation is the algorithms and equations actually being run in whatever type of format it is being run on. Video games and gaming systems take advantage of these algorithms and equations to run their model.

new media technologies produce simulations that blur the boundaries between real and the virtual  (Gain and Beer, 2008).

A case study example would be wii sport games, guitar hero and the way it’s played. The software and hardware being the guitar and wii remote connect the individual with the virtual world. A recent debate would be that the new surplus of technology is that many children live in a virtual environment rather than in real life. This is also shown in video games such as World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. 

Simulation : How Is this concept related to digital society

Simulation derives from code. Some examples are brands, logos, and binary code.

Discussion regarding this topic most often references globalization and consumption.

However, the “bigger picture” is focused around how our physical and digital world have become meshed together and connected, and what this specifically looks like in our society today, as well as what impact this has on our society.

There has been a huge drift, a huge transition from original emphasis on the producer to more recent and current emphasis on who is consuming this digital media.

Technology is the main determinant and precursor of the type of knowledge as well as the amount of knowledge that we learn. The more we are exposed to technology, the more we will be able to use it as an aid for helping us to advance our learning, and therefore, the more information we will gather.

Because technology predetermines our take on the world, an unclear, “blurred boundary” has been created between the real world and the virtual world, thus creating a much more “subjective reality”.

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Orion Schade’s SOC 255 tumblr blog