iGeneration

All Good Things ...

2005-11-04T14:20:00.000+08:00

Congratulations to you all, you've reached the end of the course! That's right, all the assignments are done, the seminars are complete and your marks will be with you in the near future.

If you've not done so already, I encourage you to listen to each others' podcasts; they're all very impressive and well worth listening to. The comments function on this blog will remain open to you (and only to students from this course), so please let each other know what you like (and to make suggestions for future podcasts in case anyone wants to continue their fine work in another context). Anyone else reading this, feedback/comments/complaints about this blog or course can be emailed to me (or comments regarding individual podcasts can be made to the email addresses listed in the respective shownotes).

In a little while I'm going to make a final post and then let this blog become a slightly more static part of the digital realm. Andrew, Gwyneth, Hilary, Liz and Kaori, can I ask that if you've any future online interactions regarding this course, you use the comments (which are still automatically email to me), not new posts, or, even better, go forth and start your own blogs! I'll be leaving this blog and all its course material up online in case it can prove of use to other people for whatever reason (from an online resource, to a skeleton for a new course, to ... well, whatever you like as long as it respects the Creative Commons License under which this course & blog are made available).

Finally, can I end on a personal note by saying I've enjoyed running this course immensely and, as with all good teaching experiences, feel I've learnt as much from you all as (I hope!) you've learnt from me. Of course, your travels in, and productions of, participatory media by no means conclude with the end of the course. Indeed, given the talent you all possess, I'd be mightily surprised not to see some other very impressive productions in the future (be they blogs, podcasts, books, scripts or whatever else you set your minds to). Thanks for a fabulous semester and best of luck with your future endevours! (And feel free to drop by my blog and let me know how your journeys are going ...)

[Fireworks Photo Credit: Jono Kenyon (Under a Creative Commons License).]

[Tags: igeneration | university | uwa | communicationstudies]

Tombcast

2005-11-03T13:39:00.000+08:00

(here's my ultra late podcast)

Shownotes

Time
[00.25] – Introduction to Tombcast
[01.18] – Feedback Email
[01.33] – Tomb Raider 2 Demo
[02.36] – Audio walkthrough (first segment)
[12.52] – Soundtrack download
[13.11] – Interlude
[20.55] – Story telling (second segment)
[30.53] – Conclusion to Tombcast

Exegesis

Participatory culture has been of one whereby the roles and relationships between producers and consumers have blurred. Consumers sought to actively participate in their favourite movies, games and so forth. This podcast is one such example. It is called Tombcast, a podcast that discuss on any interesting issues relating to the game or its spin-off movies.

On creation, the aim was to start a string of episodes to Tombcast, rather then just a one-off episode. Therefore I started by hosting the first episode. Selection of topic discussions and activities are flexible, as to keep the podcast vibrant and full of random surprises for listeners. In this episode the objective are twofold.

The first part involves the participation of the listeners, by playing the demo game with my audio walkthrough. While walkthrough guides created by fans are not new, I try to take it one step further by doing it via podcast. The second part is a story narration of the same demo game. The story satirically tackles some of the questions that are commonly asked, such as the logic of the puzzles, the restrictions in the game and what Lara (player controlled character) is thinking.

In addition, participatory culture are also involve in the modification of existing materials, and regurgitating them into something new such as those song remixes and machinima. It was said that ‘at the center of Tomb Raider was a fantasy female character’. (Kennedy, 2002) I sought to challenge this belief by narrating my own version of Tomb Raider, and how I perceived her.

The producer of Tomb Raider construct Lara as sexy, brave and agile. Changing her voice to those similar to squeaky chipmunks and narrating her as extremely clumsy and dumb was my intention to change the perception of Lara. I had also included a music remix by Tomb Raider fans for interlude, as another demonstration of fan participation.

Reference

Kennedy.W Helen, 'Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo?', Game Studies, vol.2, issue.2, December 2002

Resources

[X] A1 Free Sound Effects
[X] Sounddogs.com
[X] PartnersInRhyme
[X] Planetlara

[iLecture/Lectopia Download - Mp3 - 42.9Mb]

[Tags: laracroft | tombraider | games | videogames | gaming | podcast | participatorymedia | participatoryculture]

Simpsons: The iGeneration Podcast

2005-10-27T21:44:00.000+08:00

by Liz and Hilary :D

EPISODE: One – Cape Feare and Participatory culture

SHOWNOTES

-Time Scale

[X] (0-1.17) Introduction to the iGen
[X] (1.20-1.40) How to set up your Video with our Audio
[X] (1.40- 24.15) Part 1: The Alternative Commentary
[X] (24.16-27.51) Intermission Podsafe: Cruisebox – Tell the FCC to Stick It (Squeaky Clean Remix)
[X] (27.51-53.28) Part 2: Discussion

-Links

[X] Part 1:

- The Simpsons Official Website [Link]

[X] Intermission:

- Podesafe [Link]
- Cruisebox- Tell the FCC to Stick It (Squeaky Clean Remix) [Link]

[X] Part 2:

- Wired News: TV Tries Shaky Hand at Podcasting [Link]
- Listology: Best Fan Commentary Tracks [Link]
- Wizard People, Dear Reader by Brad Neely (NOT Harry Potter) [Link]
- Toner Mishap: The Simpsons – with “Audio Description” [Link]
- SCIFI.COM/ Battlestar Gallactica [Link]
- Fox Podcasts accessed through iTunes Podcasts, iTunes website link [Link]
- iGeneration Honours Seminar Unit References [Link]
- The Signal Podcast [Link]
- Star Wars Fan Film Awards—Only on AtomFilms [Link]
- Wired News: Blogging + Video = Vlogging [Link]
-Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder [Link]

[X] Exegesis:

- In an attempt to be innovative and participatory our Exegesis was written with the help of Writeboard by 37 Signals [Link]

- Our Exegesis Writeboard [Link] which needs our password to access please email request at fluffylittlebunny@gmail.com (NB: If we allow access through use of our password we do not wish our last version to be edited without our permission– if you edit it prepare to face certain angry consequences)

EXEGESIS

(NB: Our Exegesis was also covered in the discussion [Part 2] of our podcast, but for the sake of completeness we have also written this as well.)

Our Simpsons Podcast consists of two parts. The first part is a alternative audio commentary of the season five episode Cape Feare, while the second part consists of a wider discussion relating to the use of podcasts for purposes such as commentaries, and a consideration of participatory culture and The Simpsons.

Our alternative commentary aims to make the viewer aware of the underlying themes of The Simspons and how it is constructed in a context of other cultural media products. When creating our audio commentary we attempted to maintain a relaxed tone normally associated with this form, yet also incorporate educational comments associated with our topic. We situate The Simpsons in a time when the audience is becoming more aware of mediums and the effects this awareness has on the mediums productions. This is because with the invention and availability of new technologies, individuals have made the transition from mass consumers of media, to producers. Consequently as producers, we have become more active in every interaction with media. Hence, The Simpsons acts out audience expectations of the television medium and others, and creates a reflexive and self-referential product to be interpreted.

Our discussion explores the effects and potentials of participatory culture further in how it is related to our Simpsons podcast. We note that The Simpsons can be seen as a step in the gradual move to more ‘participatory’ cultural products. We consider Star Wars to be the least participatory, followed by the emergence of The Simpsons which moved towards a move openly culturally reflexive form and finally Battlestar Gallactica (BSG) being our example of embracing participatory culture. BSG does so by its acknowledgement of participatory culture’s emergence in the form of Podcasts and fan interaction.

Our podcast can be situated amongst the other fan produced audio commentaries, and also with the podcast phenomenon by amateurs seen through iTunes. Fox Broadcasts official Simpsons’s podcast failed due to a poor use of audio, and here we see once again that the fans are the most successful innovators in the era of participatory culture and the potentials for audio offered by Podcasts.

In conclusion, our Podcast is participatory both in the fact that it is a participatory cultural product (being a fan produced podcast) and also due to its reflection on participatory issues within The Simpsons as a medium. Our discussion highlights the position of Podcasts and their role in the further development and possibilities related to audio and participatory culture.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alberti, John, Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture, Detroit, MI: Wayne State UP, 2004. xxxii, 344 pp. Contemporary Approaches Film and Television Series

Groening, Matt, Vitti, John and Moore, Rich, “Cape Feare” on The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season DVD Collector’s Edition, 20^th Century Fox Home Entertainment 2005

Jenkins, Henry, “Interactive Audience?” in The New Media Book, Dan Harris (ed), London: BFI Publishing, 2002, pp. 157-170

Other Info:

“Cape Feare” original airdate information on Fox Network (US): 9F22 October 7, 1993. Written by John Vitti. Directed by Rich Moore

We also wish to point out that our podcast tone and informal yet educational atmosphere was influenced by the ‘Podfather’ himself, namely Adam Curry. We attempted to follow his lead in successfully creating a podcast that was clearly understandable and interesting, yet did not sound too rehearsed or scripted. To hear his famous Daily Source Code follow the [Link]

DISCLAIMER

This podcast has made all attempts to acknowledge copyright licences and works/audio cited. It was produced by students for assessment and not for any financial gain, and should be interpreted as homage to The Simpsons. Any infringement on copyright or other authors’ rights is unintentional and will be resolved upon notification.

Podcast: Christianity

2005-10-27T18:02:00.000+08:00

ShowNotes

Cited references:
Youth for Christ/USA, Life Application Study Bible, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL, 1988

Breakdown by time-code of podcast show:
0:00 Kaori Nakafuji’s Testimony (part1)
14:00 Interview of Christians on their identity as a Christian: Eileen Liow’s Testimony
16:06.5 Interview of Christians on their identity as a Christian: Maryann Tsai’s Testimony
19:29 Interview of Christians on their identity as a Christian: Merilyn Orchard’s Testimony
21:15 Interview of Christians on their identity as a Christian: Minh Ly’s Testimony
24:00 Interview of Christians on their identity as a Christian: Valerie Wan’s Testimony
25:44.5 Interview of Christians on their identity as a Christian: Darrell Wong’s Testimony
27:02 Interview of Christians on their identity as a Christian: Truc Pham’s Testimony
29:55 Kaori Nakafuji’s Testimony (part2)

Exegesis:
I am completely satisfied with my audio program in that aside from quoting three verses from the Bible, the whole podcast show was solely based on my own idea: what is being discussed is my own testimony as well as my fellow Christians’ testimonies. It is very original.

My audio program was targeted at both Christians and non-Christians: Christians to remind them of the greatness of God, non-Christians to give a succinct and concise introduction on Christianity. The purpose for creating this audio program was so all will come to realize that Christianity is not merely a religion; it is the sole truth behind our very existence. To achieve this goal, I intentionally did not apply any background music, nor did I apply any special audio effects provided by audacity. I wanted to keep the audio program as simple as possible so that the audience can focus on the precious message itself conveyed in the audio program. Through the process, I shared my own testimony of how I came to know Christ. As a Christian, I was always encouraged to share my testimony, but in fact, this was my first time to actually do so. In addition, my brothers and sisters in Christ were kind enough to record testimonies on how they found their identity as a Christian; I interpolated the testimonies into my audio program which consisted mainly of my own testimony as well as the key verses from the Bible: the very precious Words of God.

I believe this audio program successfully reflected the ideas of participatory culture, which as the word implies, refers to any kind of citizen active involvement in the production of culture, to put it in my own words. My audio program intended to get the audience involved in that if they wanted to know more about Christ or had any questions regarding Christianity, they could contact me personally, which I mentioned in detail within the audio program. If I had the opportunity to continue this audio program, making it a regular weekly program, I would have even mentioned such things as that the audience can get even more actively involved by contacting me to give testimony in the next episode of my audio program. Perhaps, each week, different topics for the interview can be arranged; the host and the audience together can create a podcast show that inspires all of us to be passionate about Christianity.

[iLecture/Lectopia Download - Mp3 - 44.3Mb]

[Tags: podcast | christianity | faith | mp3 | westernaustralia | godcast | uwa]

Rich and the Rural Podcast

2005-10-26T21:56:00.000+08:00

RICH AND THE RURAL:

A PODPLAY

SHOWNOTES

THE PLAYERS;

VOICE-OVER: TAMA
SINDI: GWYNETH
CARLOS: LEWIS
BRAD: MICHAEL
JACKSON: GWYNETH AGAIN
STEFAN: MARK
SINDI'S MOTHER: GLENDA
BETHANY: ALLISON
GIRL IN THE
HOSPITAL: EMMA
RESCUE DOG: HERSELF*
GAGGLE OF DUCKS: THEMSELVES*

* Please note: No animals were harmed during the production of this material... seriously.

Many thanks to
THE ORCHESTRA;

Rich and the Rural Theme; 'Passion fruit (Go Bananas!)' by Brain Buckit
Brad's Bad Boy theme; 'Rumble Groove' by George Fletcher – Bourbon Renewal
Sindi's Love theme; 'Around the Bend' by Adrina Thorpe
Behind the Times TV theme; 'Keep the Home Fires Burning' by Madly Jadly
Bad Driving theme; 'Mannequin' by Cats and Jammers
Intermission theme; 'Tedeebedibbedib' by Fluox Speelt Fluox

All of whom reside at http://music.podshow.com/index.php

ALSO, thanks to
the SOUND EFFECTS crew;
http://www.freeaudioclips.com/
http://www.soundamerica.com/

RICH AND THE RURAL
time line:

00:00:37 - Rich and the Rural Theme; Passion fruit (Go Bananas!) by Brain Bucket
00:01:45 - Episode One: The Phantom Hair
00:02:35 – Bad Boy Brad Returns: Rumble Groove by George Fletcher – Bourbon Renewal
00:04:00 – In which Carlos is interrupted in the spa
00:05:33 - In which Sindi Stalks about in her backless gown
00:06:50 - Sindi's Love theme; Around the Bend by Adrina Thorpe
00:09:00 - Behind the Times TV theme; Keep the Home Fires Burning by Madly Jadly
00:10:43 - Bad Driving theme; Mannequin by Cats and Jammers
00:12:20 – Intermission Theme; Tedeebedibbedib by Floux Speelt Floux
00:12:36 – In which the creator (of the podcast, not the world) gives a short, but impassioned intermission speech encouraging a radio play comeback
00:14:14 – Intermission end
00:15:40 – In which the rescue dog makes a tragic sacrifice
00:17:34 – In which a gaggle of ducks come to an untimely end
00:18:00 – In which the final non-fatal road accident of the episode takes place
00:18:17 - Rich and the Rural Theme; Passion fruit (Go Bananas!) by Brain Bucket

Exegesis:

PODPLAY: MAKING THE OLD
NEW AGAIN

"When we discover in this world no earth or rock to stand or walk upon but only
shifting sea and sky and wind, the mature response is not to lament the loss of fixity
but to learn to sail."

James Boyd White(7)

The development of new technologies offers individuals an unparalleled opportunity to take creative production into their own hands. The internet enables writers and musicians to achieve public exposure independent of whether their work is deemed acceptable by mainstream mediating forces, such as publishers or record label executives (6). That these materials now flow more freely about the globe via websites and peer-to-peer networks raises new challenges for individual artists, and creates perhaps an even more complex environment in which to locate and foster relationships with like minded creators (2). That being said, it also creates opportunities for cooperation between individuals who may never otherwise have had access to each other.

A radio play comeback which utilizes podcast technology could provide the mechanism to bring both creators and fans together in new ways. Musicians, writers, actors and technophiles would have the opportunity to participate in something which combines their talents, rather than each occupying a separate sphere in cyberspace. There are already music podcasts and writers forums, encouraging creative people to bring their talents together could diversify existing online networks and also pool their audiences, thus increasing public exposure for all. Sometimes, in order to find something new and unique you need to glance back at what was once lost, find it again, and look at it with new eyes.

Early radio drama began with the dramatization of classic novels and plays, pioneered by the BBC in 1923 (3), before expanding into scripts written specifically for the medium (4). The start was slow, as audiences had to come to appreciate the radio play as a unique genre, rather than a poor copy of the stage play or film serial (Giddings, p.9). The process for the radio play podcast, or podplay, would probably be similar, except this time it would have to prove itself against television and commercial radio, the very technologies which flagged its demise in the first place.

The competition between visual and the strictly auditory media has previously gone in television's favour, however the success of podcasting signals a new era in which a desire for mobility and flexibility of experience gives the radio play a new lease on life (1). There is already a flourishing new audience for the intimacy of the voice (5), the amateurish rustling of paper, the occasional glitches or mistakes, this is what podcasting audiences have already learned to love (6).

The serialized nature of podcasting mirrors the radio play narrative, the episodic "come back next week" which keeps the audience returning for more. Rich and the Rural is one form, and admittedly something of a parody of itself, but sometimes broaching something new is best done through humour. My hope is that this podplay will get someone's attention, who will then sit down and make their own, which is listened to by someone else who does the same, and so on. It is material which is free to produce, it's fun, and it will expand interpersonal networks across the internet. Best of all, if someone does not like it, they cannot pull you off the air. Now that is participatory culture.

SOURCES*:

Beck, A. Point-of-Listening in Radio Plays. Sound Journal, 1998.
<http://www.kent.ac.uk/sdfva/sound-journal/beck981.html>
(Accessed 24/10/05)
Bugeja, M. Inter-Personal Divide: The Search for Community in a Technological Age.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Giddings, R. and Keith Selby. The Classic Serial on Television and Radio.
New York: Palgrave, 2001.
Hagedorn, R. "Doubtless to be Continued: A Brief History of Serial Narrative" in To Be Continued: Soap Operas Around the World. [ed.] Robert C. Allen. London: Routledge, 1995.
Larriaga, J. A Listening Audience for Radio Theatre? Entr'Actes, 2005.
<http://entractes.sacd.fr/en/listening_audience.php>
(Accessed 24/10/2005)
Newitz, A. Adam Curry Wants to Make You an iPod Radio Star. Wired Magazine, 2005.
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/
curry.html?pg=2&topic=curry&topic_set=>
(Accessed 24/10/05)
Reinhardt, M. The Art of Being Free: Taking Liberties with Tocqueville, Marx, and Arendt. London: Cornell University Press, 1997.

* Appologies for slightly clunky footnotes, my computer refuses to play nicely with others...

THE END...
for now

Good Lecture

2005-10-16T14:27:00.000+08:00

I recently caught John Doyle giving the Andrew Ollie Media Lecture on ABC TV, and it was great. Ostensibly about his experience of the media, Doyle manages to cover everything from Big Brother to the future of the media with insight and humour. Highly recomend a listen for anyone needing a break from study which doesn't involve mind numbing reality television! (not that there is anything wrong with that) Don't bother with the transcript, go audio.

Available at: http://abc.net.au/sydney/stories/s1476723.htm

Advent Children

2005-10-13T22:07:00.000+08:00

Here's the movie that I was talking about aeons ago. The movie based on the old playstation game 'final fantasy 7'

(A picture for you to drool over, and to deco this blog) :D

Just another example of a video game turned movie. Sooo excited! Can't wait for them to release it over here. ;P

here's the official site if you are interested. (funky flash btw)

Week 12: Participatory Culture Then, Now and Tomorrow

2005-10-12T16:18:00.000+08:00

Welcome to your final seminar for iGeneration! This week we've got two large case studies and three short(ish) articles to look at. The first case study focuses on the citizen media responses to Hurricane Katrina's Aftermath mainly from US commentators and mainly from a left-wing perspective. There are lots of links in the five-part Aftermath post, but have a look at as many as you can. The second case study is (shock, horror) looking at the way the film Serenity was marketed and promoted both from the production side and by fans. Read "That Serenity Post..." first, and then take a look at the other media listed (one produced by fans, one by Universal). Finally, you've got three readings which will help us sum up the course (a few questions about these are below).

Case Study I: Citizen Media Responses to Hurricane Katrina's Aftermath
[X] Katrina: The Aftermath, The Politics & Citizen Media [Part I] [Part II] [Part III] [Part IV] [Part V]
[X] Kayne West Political Mashup: "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People" by The Legendary K.O.
[X] George Bush Don't Like Black People: The Music Video

Case Study II: Citizen Media/Fandom & Finding Serenity
[X] That Serenity Post...
[X] The Signal Podcast (listen to any episode, or part of one at least)
[X] Fifth & Final Serenity/Firefly Viral Movie Clip: Session 416, First Excerpt (watch at least one of the clips)

The Final Readings
[X] Sonja Haller, "iPod era of personal media choices may be turning us into an iSolation nation", The Arizona Republic, Sept. 12, 2005.
[X] Danah Boyd, "remix is active consumption not production", apophenia, October 08, 2005.
[X] Chris Anderson, "The Long Tail", Wired, 12.10, October 2004.

Some Questions to Think About for the Seminar:
[1] Is participatory culture, mashing up and citizen journalism really all that new? What does Danah Boyd think?
[2] Does participatory culture online offer a wider world of individual choice and expression or is it being subsumed as a marketing model? What does the selling of Serenity tell us? How different is the producer-released material (or "guerilla marketing" stuff) versus fan-created cultural items (the "grassroots media)? Should we fear "astro-turfing" (the attempts by big media to manufacture a fan 'buzz' where one does not already exist)?
[3] Does the Long Tail reflect a more dynamic system of media, consumption and production or it is just capitalism finally figuring out the internet?
[4] Finally, how large a role do you think citizen journalism and citizen media will play in the next ten years? (Why?)

Final Blog Post:
When you make your final reflective post this week, can you please also comment on the course as a whole: did it work as a coherent unit for you? What worked best? What didn't work? Any suggestions about things that should be changed?

Week 11 Seminar: Podcasting: Revolutionising Radio?

2005-10-06T01:44:00.000+08:00

“I have an expectation that I can pick a device up and pick any song that I want, so I get frustrated with radio when it doesn’t do that for me.”

“We’ve now got young people who have an expectation about how they’re going to consume their media, and they want to create their own experience, they want to take out the bad presenters, they want to take out the songs they don’t like, they want to take those adverts out.”

This week we are looking more closely at the growing phenomenon of podcasting, which might indeed satisfy just what was mentioned in the quotes above, which I would refer to as our never-ending appetite for something better. Basically, in podcast, a show is created using Really Simple Syndication (RSS), free publishing software that zaps files to users without their visiting a website and then is broadcast to subscribers PCs so it can be downloaded at their convenience to a mobile device. This means that anyone anywhere can string together a whole lot of music or sound clips and their own banter, and send the podcast out to anyone who subscribes. There is a debate over the survival of this phenomenon, with supporters arguing that podcasting will revolutionize broadcasting and the internet, to the extent that speeches were given warning broadcasters to be prepared for the age of personalized media. On the other hand, cynics argue that it is just a fad that will dissipate in no time.

This week’s readings are:

[X]ABC Radio National – Background Briefing: 31 October 2004 – 'Music of the Blogospheres' [Mp3 File] [Transcript]

[X] Circuits; In One Stroke, Podcasting Hits Mainstream -
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html
?res=9A0DE0DC103FF93BA15754C0A9639C8B63&fta=y

[X] Stage two of the podcasting revolution -
http://news.com.com/Stage+two+of+the+podcasting+revolution
/2010-1025_3-5687567.html

[X]Purdue Plans Academic Podcasts -
http://www.podcastingnews.com/archives/2005/
08/purdue_plans_ac.html

[X]Trash guidebook, pack a podcast -
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/07/08/bt.travel.podcast/

Here are some questions for you to consider while doing this week’s readings:

[X] Do you think that this fad of podcasting will last or dissipate in a short time? Why?

[X] Can you think of any other way other than the ones mentioned in the articles to make use of this revolutionizing technology?

[X] What distinguishes this technology from previous forms of technology?

[X] Do you have a favorite radio? Can it be substituted by podcast? Why?

[X] Do you think podcast is killing the traditional radio?

[X] What copyright issues do you suppose will arise as podcast gains momentum? How can it be solved?

[X] How would you respond to a criticism about podcasting saying ‘Why do I want to listen to amateur radio’?

Major Podcast Assignment

2005-10-03T17:01:00.000+08:00

Construct an innovative digital audio programme of up to 45 minutes length which explores the medium of podcasting and critically engages with the idea of participatory culture in either the podcast itself or its exegesis. The programme can be of any genre or type, but must comply with copyright restrictions as the file will be made available publicly online.

[X] TIME LIMIT: 45 minutes (unless a longer limit is negotiated with Tama before submission).
[X] VALUE: 50% of your overall mark for the course.
[X] DUE ON CD: Before 5pm, Thursday 27th October, to be submitted with printed ShowNotes (and printed Exegesis if one is created), Release Forms, and with a cover sheet to the English, Communication & Cultural Studies Office
[X] DUE ONLINE: Before 9am, Friday 28th October, you must post your detailed ShowNotes (and Exegesis if written) to the course blog (your podcast will be manually added to your ShowNotes once processed by the iLecture system).

(NB: You must submit in both formats for your Audio Programme to be marked).

You MUST submit:
[1] A copy of your FULL audio programme on Compast Disc. The show MUST be submitted in AIFF (Apple/SGI 16bit PCM) format. [To produce this file, once your audio programme is completed select EXPORT as AIFF from the FILE menu; to ensure you can the correct AIFF setting, select File > Preferences > File Formats > Uncompressed File Format > AIFF (Apple/SGI 16bit PCM).]
[2] Your ShowNotes, which should contain all cited references, a breakdown by time-code of your show (by chapter, scene, interview or whatever other marker is appropriate). ShowNotes should be submitted in print with your CD and should also be posted to the course blog.
[3]An Exegesis – If your audio programme allows you to sufficiently reflect on ideas of participatory culture, your exegesis (an explantation of how your programme engages with and explores participatory culture) may be part of your audio programme, but MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED AS SUCH. Otherwise, an exegesis of no more than 500 words should be included at the end of your ShowNotes in both printed and blogged format.
[4] All the appropriate Presenter Release Forms for yourself and any interviewees, voice talent, or anyone else appearing in your audio programme.

A Few Hints’n’Tips:
[X] Continually SAVE during audio production!
[X] Test your EXPORTED file thoroughly prior to submission. If it has any bits of your audio missing, you will NOT be given the opportunity to resubmit. (It’s your responsibility to get your exported file into the correct format!).
[X] Normal citation and plagiarism rules apply. You must cite all sources clearly, not just give URLs. (If citing blogs, be sure to use the specific links to each blog post; the overall link to the blog is not sufficient.) If you are in any way unclear about citation or plagiarism, please see Tama before you submit your assignment!
[X] Remember, this is a scholarly production at Honours Level. Secondary material is preferable whever possible (even if only cited in your Exegesis).
[X] When posting your ShowNotes (and Exegesis) to the course blog, please convert footnotes and URLs to live hyperlinks (eg don’t just have the text i-generation.blogspot.com, but rather use the link tool in Blogger to make sure it’s a clickable link such as http://i-generation.blogspot.com).

IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT THIS ASSIGNMENT

1. Your written work should be submitted to the ECCS Office with a cover-sheet attached. Please do NOT submit written work directly to your tutor. (If you do, there may be no official record that the work was ever submitted.)

2. In order to satisfy course requirements, students must submit work by the due date. Unless an extension of the due date has been granted, late assignments will incur a penalty of 2 marks per working day. (Extension requests should be made in writing to your tutor, and will normally require a medical certificate.) A grade of 'NM' will be recorded if no assignment is submitted. No work will be accepted after the end of the examination period (without a formal deferral from the Academic Student Advisor).

3. It is essential to KEEP A COPY of your work. In the case of loss of an assignment, notes or an earlier draft cannot be accepted as substitutes.

4. Please do NOT write on both sides of the paper.

5. Whether your work is typed or hand-written, it should be DOUBLE-SPACED. (For handwritten work, this means that you write on every second line.)

6. Please leave a WIDE MARGIN in case the marker needs to offer comments and annotations.

7. PLAGIARISM Please be aware that the work you submit must be your own work with no unacknowledged debt to some other writer or source. To pass off written work as your own, whether you have copied it from someone else or from somewhere else (be it a published writer, another person, a TV program, a library anthology, or whatever) is to deprive yourself of the real benefits of this course and to be guilty of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious offence! University policy is that plagiarism, the unacknowledged quotation of material from other people's work, is a ground for failure. Any work that contains ideas or phrases taken from other works without acknowledgement - PLAGIARISM - will be failed, given the grade of 0 and your name placed on the Faculty's Plagiarism Register. This includes direct quotations, when a section of one text is transposed into another without any changes, and indirect paraphrasing, when the main ideas and arguments of someone else’s work are used. If you take notes from other sources (critical articles, background works, etc) you must quote carefully and accurately, and acknowledge the quotation. Even if you paraphrase, you must still acknowledge that you are paraphrasing. This is very important!

Word 'Blog' is mentioned on Dilbert

2005-10-02T21:24:00.000+08:00

Its been a while since Dilbert entertained this blod, so here you go: (sorry its so small, blogger wont let me make it any larger!)

Traditional Media vs New Media

2005-09-30T11:08:00.000+08:00

Check out this interesting example of collaborative writing vs traditional one person journalism on Wikipedia!
Wiki editors and contributors have edited a Esquire article!! Which will then be printed in Esquire magazine....for more info go and have a look :)

Group Outing

2005-09-28T13:36:00.000+08:00

No i'm not talking about THAT kind of outing, unless we all want to come out and claim ourselves to be members of participatory culture!!! :P *hahaha ok that wasn't that funny*

Anyway...since everyone is keen on having a group movie thingy of Serenity, and since Tama has hinted heavily that it may appear in our last seminar...what do people think about October the 11th, (a tuesday for cheap tix)
Location: Innalloo
Time: evening session of choice?

Just thought I would get the organisational ball rolling...any suggestions?

:)

Somebody Help Me!

2005-09-25T21:09:00.000+08:00

Finished! (above)

Ok, Andrew/Gwen, I'm looking at you guys!! Please for the love of participatory culture will you help me figure out this Cube game!!!!! *cries* I was peacefully doing uniwork, until I was caught unawares by this game and it is driving me insane since I cant complete it!!!
Below is a picture of how far I managed to get....er above for some reason the picture loaded there!
Help! My sanity hangs in the balance!

Participatory Culture Eat Your Heart OUT!!!

2005-09-25T15:25:00.000+08:00

Can I believe this? Could it get ANY better?
Yes it could....but this is nevertheless fantastic and related to TWO of our seminar topics!
Yes, Adam Curry is knocking out two birds with one stone, making his DSC Podcast shownotes A WIKI!!!!!!!! (its like my two fav's have come together *sigh's contentedly*)

So, not only do we now have participatory culture in terms of the show being a Podcast, but, its actual shownotes are being written and updated by the listeners, who are posting interesting links or thoughts on some of Adam's topics (which he admits on occasion he has little knowledge about).

I could of exploded with complete amazement when he mentioned the idea of wiki shownotes on DSC #244.... simply because it fitted in so well with what we have been discussing.
It's so satisfying to be talking about these things on our blog and in discussion's in our seminar's and then to actually witness people within a specific aspect of 'participatory culture', actually do something that brings a number of our interests together!

Anyway my fellow blogger's, why don't you have a look here at the Wiki... it's only just been born, so don't be too harsh in your judgements....

As Big Kev would say, "I'm excited!"

EDIT 29/09/05 : They now have set up an alternative Wiki that is based on Wikipedia using wikimedia's wiki template. This appears to be the one being used, just thought I would tell you since this new one is easier to understand/navigate etc....not that ANYBODY appears to have been interested in this post! :P

Noob Alert

2005-09-23T16:23:00.000+08:00

Given our penchant for supporting the online participation of enterprising young citizens, I thought I'd share this unique site with you all: http://www.purepwnage.com/index.html

If you do watch some of the clips I highly recommend you go in chronological order... It will probably make most sense to obsessive gamers, but even 'noobs' (innocent and inept new gamers) can appreciate the humour. Good stuff.

A Few Things ...

2005-09-20T16:25:00.000+08:00

[1] Don't forget your peer reviews of each other's Critical Evaulations are due to be posted as a comment to the respective person's Critical Evaluation you were assigned before 5pm, Friday September 30th.
[2] Please download and test Audacity before out meeting on October 5th ... if you have questions about setup or how it works that session will be the ideal time. The more you've tried, the more you'll know it you've got questions/problems.
[3] The session on October 5th will be held in the Collaborative Learning Studio (2.31). Half the time will be looking at Audacity (hopefully guided by your questions); in the other half, you're pitching your idea for your Research Podcasts (please have thought through your idea before the class ... you'll get the most out of the session if you've already thought through the immediately obvious issues!). Also, don't forget to have a listen to my prototype podcast to get an idea of the background to podcasting and some ideas for your own.
[4] I think the idea of you all heading to Serenity is a great one (obviously it's not a requirement for the course, but I think you'll all enjoy the film if you get a chance ... and don't forget to think about how the "You Can't Stop the Signal" ethos relates to the course!).

Finally, have a great break! I'm overseas until October 4th, so any emails sent during the break may not get a response until then. Have fun!

Critical Evaluation - Darknet

2005-09-16T17:29:00.000+08:00

Technology, in many ways has always been an important determinant in shaping the mechanics of the society – how it functions. From the invention of the light bulb by Thomas Edison to the current i-pod[1] by Macintosh, they have revolutionised the lifestyles of many. All in all, these inventions sought to ease and improve various aspects of a person’s life, such as enhancing one’s work productivity, leisure time, and allowing them to expand on their potentials and interests. Technologies are opening a gateway for them to create, share and produce materials[2] that are beforehand restricted only to big major companies and conglomerates. The public are no longer passive consumers, but strive to reinvent existing and contributing to future materials.

This emerging participatory culture[3] is blurring[4] the lines of work between the public and the private domain. Some had even questioned the relevance of some companies’ existence.[5] In retaliation to these unknown threats, big companies safeguard their interests by pushing for copyright laws that will control and impede public’s work. Consequently this also generated a number of people, associations[6] and websites that opposes such actions. Darknet[7] is one such website. It is the aim of this exercise to evaluate Darknet blog in term of its position, contribution and relation to participatory culture and digital communication.

Darknet is a term meaning “a collection of networks and technologies used to share digital content”.[8] They are the mediums or tools for sending and receiving files from one to another and the function to make copies of the files. This includes peer to peer sharing (p2p) and burning[9] of CD and DVD respectively; hence allowing quick and easy dissemination of digital files. Examples includes Napster[10], Kazaa[11], Grokster[12] and the newly Bittorent[13]. These services have been subjected to many copyright lawsuits, on the grounds that they are encouraging illegal copyrighted file sharing. This has dire implications on the big companies because as mentioned above, “companies take such a hard line over p2p distribution is because a more level, or democratic, playing field calls into question the legitimacy of their own stated reasons for existence.”[14]Consequently this causes closure of Napster in 2001[15], and multiple court cases for Kazaa[16] and Grokster.[17]

During the period when Napster was shutting down, there was the appearance of a number of counterparts with similar features to Napster on the web.[18]This defiance and the sense of neglect to the copyright laws is part of the constant battle for sharing and participation rights against the major companies. Hence the Darknet blog serves as a source for readers to find out more about the on-going struggle between Darknet and the opposing companies. The continuous updates on any matters in relation to Darknet, from new softwares, debates, interviews and court ruling outcome serves as supports; and maintaining the hype around Darknet. Thus the position of the blog was evident and clear. It wholly promotes Darknet, and is apparent by reading the blog posts. More often then not, interviews and court ruling that favours the big companies are generally criticised.[19]

The position of the Darknet blog can be traced by examining the author. This blog is written and maintained by J.D Lasica. He is “one of the world's leading authorities on grassroots media and the personal media revolution.”[20] He is the current head of ourmedia.org[21], and has given numerous lectures and speeches on digital technologies. Ultimately his intention was to voice his concern over the threats on digital culture.[22] These threats involve strict copyright rules that will ‘lock-down’ public’s freedom to share and create, and consequently obstructing their creativity. He discusses the steps taken by these big companies that will eventually result in a total control of public’s work. Simply speaking, rules have been tweaked to favour the big over small.[23] Therefore it is the Darknet blog and his aim to create awareness on such matters. The objective is twofold. Firstly it is to inspire public to fight against these laws and secondly to change the mentality of these companies. The war between them will only disadvantage both parties, as Lasica argued that “recent excesses in law and private industry have created a new imbalance in the public’s digital freedoms that threatens to shackle creative culture.”[24] and also “they (big companies) attempt to lock down content with digital armor in a way that eviscerates traditional fair use rights, they are alienating customers —and pursuing business practices contrary to their long-term interests.”[25]

The Darknet blog has also contribute in forming an online community, with multiple links to other websites and weblogs with similar ideas and arguments. Linking to weblogs of the likes of people like Dan Gillmor[26] and Lawrence Lessig[27] has strengthened their bond, generating greater hype and a stronger voice to copyright matters. Moreover these linked sites have also links to Darknet and to others, further reinforcing their bond and the sense of community. Indeed “links to related sites create new expansions of communities and connections to other informational and organizational resources, which might itself constitute a new branch in online activism theory.”[28] Additionally this has allows relevant information to be gathered in a single body of links, resulting in quick updates and notifications and ease of archiving for the visitors and authors themselves. The commonly used of quotes on excerpts and comments[29] taken from other weblogs also allows opportunities for further discussions and examination, thus re-energising the topics and hype.

Darknet as a blog have also differentiated itself from other media forms such as static websites, television and radio. In many ways it is perhaps the most suitable medium to discuss free sharing and copyright issues. Firstly, copyright laws on the internet are still rather vague, and thus blogging serves as a wonderful means of experimenting with this issue. Secondly is the ability for visitors to comment on the blog post. This has an attribute of the participatory culture, whereby readers can carry on the discussion; notify the author of errors or new updates and so on. Blog therefore are good ‘feedback system’.[30]Thirdly blogs have the reputation to surpass traditional news media in the speed of response to latest news and issues.[31] They are also flexible in changing their contents to improve accuracy. Such speed and fluidity of bloggings have enlisted them as one of the more popular source for the latest information. Lastly the links to other weblogs widen the accountability of the posted information, as readers can examine other weblogs to see if there is relativity in similar posts.

In conclusion, the Darknet blog sought to support the public’s battle against major companies from imposing strict copyright laws that will impede creativity and innovation. The intention of the blog is to create an awareness of such matters, rallying and creating interests in the public to oppose such changes. It is also the intention of the author to try and change the mentality of these companies. The Darknet blog itself has participated and contribute to being part of an online community with similar cause and ideals. The links to similar weblogs strengthen their bond, amplifying their existence. The medium of Darknet as a blog have several advantages over traditional forms of media such as television and radio.

Notes
[1] I-pod is a portable hardware that allows the user to store computer files and to play mp3
[2] Materials is defined as intangible digital goods such as videos, games, fan-fictions, music
[3] An era whereby consumers are also producers
[4] Sam Howard-Spink, "Grey Tuesday, Online Cultural Activism and the Mash-up of Music and Politics." First Monday 9.10 (2004), http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_10/howard/
[5] Emerging popularity of online journalism has questioned the viability of big news company. For further information visit http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/ch00.pdf
[6] Associations such as Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) http://www.hsan.org/ , Music for America (MfA) http://www.musicforamerica.org/
[7] Visit http://www.darknet.com/
[8] Peter Biddle, Paul England, Marcus Peinado, Bryan Williams, “Darknet and the future of content distribution” ACM Workshop on Digital Rights Management (2002), http://www.bearcave.com/misl/misl_tech/msdrm/darknet.htm
[9] Burning is a computer term meaning writing or storing information onto the disc.
[10] Visit http://www.napster.com
[11] Visit http://www.kazaa.com/us/index.htm
[12] Visit http://www.grokster.com/
[13] Visit http://www.bittorrent.com/
[14] Sam Howard-Spink, "Grey Tuesday, Online Cultural Activism and the Mash-up of Music and Politics." (2004)
[15] Napster is a p2p music sharing service. Wikipedia, “Napster”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster
[16] Wayne Arnold, “Australian Court rules Kazaa has violated copyrights”, New York Times (2005), http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/06/technology/06kazaa.html
?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=e0875d7f2c01553e&ex=
1283659200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
[17] Wikipedia, “MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM_vs._Grokster
[18] Jeremy Shermak, “Global Napster usage plummets, but new file-sharing alternatives gaining ground, reports Jupiter Media Metrix”, ComScore Networks, (2001) http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?id=249
[19] JD Lasica, “Lessig on the ‘rotten’ Grokster ruling”, Darknet (2005), http://www.darknet.com/2005/09/lessig_on_the_r.html, JD Lasica, “Courts on DMCA: You can’t improve products”, Darknet (2005), http://www.darknet.com/2005/09/courts_on_dmca_.html
[20] “About JD Lasica”, http://www.jdlasica.com/aboutjd.html
[21] Ourmedia.org is the global home for grassroots media. Visit http://www.ourmedia.org/
[22] JD Lasica, “Darknet mini-book: introduction”, Darknet (2005), http://www.darknet.com/2005/05/darknet_miniboo.html
[23] Dan Gilmor, 'From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond' from We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Sebastopol: O'Reilly Media, 2004, pp. 4 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/ch01.pdf
[24] JD Lasica, “Darknet mini-book: introduction”, (2005)
[25] JD Lasica, “Darknet mini-book: introduction”, (2005)
[26] Visit http://bayosphere.com/blog/dangillmor
[27] Lessig is another well known author that has written articles and books on free culture and creative commons. Visit http://www.lessig.org/blog/
[28] Sam Howard-Spink, "Grey Tuesday, Online Cultural Activism and the Mash-up of Music and Politics." (2004)
[29] Examples of excerpts taken from Lessig and posted on Darknet blog. JD Lasica, “Lessig on the imperilled public domain”, Darknet, (2005), http://www.darknet.com/2005/09/lessig_on_the_i.html
[30] Dan Gilmor, 'From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond', (2004), pp. 1-22
[31] Tama Leaver, “The Mediascape and the London bombing”, Ponderance (2005), http://ponderance.blogspot.com/2005/07/mediascape-
london-bombings.html

Awesome Audio

2005-09-16T12:28:00.000+08:00

In light of Fox's release and their rating in the Top 100 Podcasts on iTunes, I would just like to say The Simpsons podcast and Family Guy podcast, are undoubtedly the worse use of audio ever!
How NOT to do a Podcast.

In comparison, check out this awesome use of audio.....

Critical Evaluation Exercise

2005-09-15T22:59:00.000+08:00

This discussion will be evaluating The Signal, a podcast established by fans of the soon to be released film Serenity, and assessing its role in relation to digital communication and online fan participation. *

Podcasting is a new form of digital communication which links directly to the growth of what Henry Jenkins terms "participatory culture." This movement is a result of new technologies which break down barriers between producers and consumers, and allow "average citizens" to enter into the media marketplace (Jenkins). The reduction of costs, the expansion of choice, and the increased freedom to create and share are all part of this new technological environment, "a new style of consumerism" in which everyday people are actively involved in the "annotation, appropriation, transformation, and recirculation of media content" (Jenkins). Where a listener of traditional radio can only listen to content programmed by others, usually including commercial advertising, podcasting allows the home audience to mold their own individual audio program and share it on the internet. Virginia Heffernan explains podcasts as "... little radio shows that people create on the cheap; you can download them at no cost from the Web, and listen to them whenever you want." The individual at home needs only a connection to the Web, a microphone and basic software to create their own podcast, while the online audience can pick and choose exactly what they want from a wide variety of programs. It is all made even easier by the use of the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) system, which can be used to locate and update your favourite podcasts automatically from the Web onto the computer.

The Signal is a podcast created by a group of fans for the unabashed promotion of the television series Firefly and its upcoming feature film Serenity. The creators' aim is to make online converts while explicitly calling on existing fans to spread the word about the series and the film. The podcasts are a combination of audio clips, music from the series, interviews with stars, comic features, and updates of Serenity related news, separated at intervals by the hosts' enthusiastic discussion of the material. An interactive element is added by hosts reading out and discussing e-mail responses from fellow online fans, as well as the provision of shownotes and links with each episode.

This podcast is part of a much larger community of fans whose passionate involvement with the 2001 television series Firefly was the reason Universal Pictures agreed to join creator Joss Whedon in making the feature film Serenity. Neva Chonin, claims that "'Serenity's' existence is a testimonial to the tenacity of fans and the power of the Internet, where [fans] have spent the past three years inspiring converts, drafting petitions and even kibitzing with the 'Firefly' cast on bulletin boards." Now that the movie is nearing release, fans are engaging in a 'guerrilla marketing' campaign to ensure its commercial success. During the fourth podcast of The Signal a segment devoted to 'guerilla marketing' techniques was premiered, with details on how fans can manipulate the International Movie data Base's (IMDB) ratings system in order to get Serenity in the top ten list after its release. The segment is framed in terms of Serenity fans being involved in an "underdog story" emphasising the need to "keep talking," to spread the word to all their friends and lend out DVD's of the canceled series. The podcast creators show a clear self awareness of fan influence, as well as a critical understanding of the systems of power which operate within the film industry.

This particular case of fan involvement is an example of the changing relationship between fans and media producers. Rather than pursuing the usual million dollar advertising campaign to promote their movie, Universal Pictures and creator Joss Whedon turned to their fan base for support. Given that the television series was not on screen for long, and not a significant main stream success at the time, the commercial success of the movie depends on moving beyond the already established fan community (Chonin, 2005). Whedon is very conscious of the power of grass-roots promotion, and is "actively recruiting [fans] as guerrilla publicists" (Chonin). The official Serenity fan website, Browncoats, gives members points and prizes for the creation of advertising materials and the recruiting of new fans. Whedon explains, "It's a viral thing, encouraging them to encourage other people to see it... 'Serenity' doesn't have Tom Cruise... or any of the other things marketing people latch onto" (Chonin). Jenkins agrees that this emerging recognition of the inter-dependance of fans and media products, has resulted in "cult" material being "consciously produced, designed to provoke fan interactions" (2002). While it remains to be seen if Whedon and Universal's approach will lead to success for Serenity, it has already proven successful in the sales of Firefly DVD's.

It can be argued that the extent to which fans are willing to invest in an online project, such as The Signal podcast, depends on their sense of being a part of something larger, a collective, in which their contribution has value and is appreciated. The web facilitates a much greater level of personal involvement from fans than previously offered in print forms such as fanzines. Anita Blanchard's discussion of how a "sense of community" may be present in virtual space highlights four important characteristics, including: feelings of membership; influence; integration; and emotional connection. All of these aspects are present within The Signal, and are often explicitly discussed. The concept of membership is associated here with a shared experience of Firefly fandom, something which bonds individuals together regardless of gender, ethnicity, or geography. The influence of individual fans within the community depends only on their willingness to get involved, as the hosts' often reiterate that any contribution to the cause of Firefly or Serenity is appreciated. Integration is achieved through a network of associated feedback systems between online fan projects: fans visit each other's sites; post comments; share information; email; and join in on message boards. The emotional investment within the community is an area where Whedon and the actors involved are closely linked with fans. Unlike many public figures Whedon has cultivated a personal relationship with fans which has created a sense that he is more a cult hero than corporate media producer. The Signal plays interviews and speeches by Whedon and his actors in which they profess a great sentiment, not only towards the cast, but towards the fans who support them, sometimes to the point of tearful breakdown. After chatting with one of the actors for a podcast, host Kari Haley claimed that watching her DVD felt inexplicably "different" as a result, a measure of the significance she placed on the personal interaction.

A controversial aspect of podcasting, which remains unclear at the present time, is the extent to which copyright laws will apply to the everyday podcaster in the future. The Signal not only plays pieces of music and audio from the Firefly series, but clips from the unreleased movie, as well as full film trailers. Given Whedon and Universal's genial attitude to fans this is unlikely to ever cause a problem, but the future of unauthorised audio use by the increasing number of podcasting individuals world wide is less secure. Ernest Miller comments that "... when people are doing their own little radio shows... they’re going to quote from a sound clip from a favourite TV show or from another radio show... it’ll become a question of whether or not using these small quotations of sound are going to be fair use". John Buckman, owner of an online record company, says "my fear is that podcasters will be seen as broadcasters and will be clamped down on in the same way internet radio was". Similar to file sharing, which was unregulated at first, podcasting appears destined to face off with copyright law as it builds a greater following. Carly Didden, from Collegiate Broadcasters, Inc., concedes that "copyright law has yet to catch up with the technology of podcasting". Didden suggests that as the existing quality and quantity of podcasts increase, so will the licensing requirements, "today podcasts are free to download, may be commercial-free, and are unregulated, in the future, at the risk of turning away listeners, podcasters may add commercials or charge fees in order to pay for bandwith or copyright licenses" It remains to be seen whether fan podcasts such as The Signal will be able to continue, as is, in subsequent years, or whether they will be forced to curtail their content.

The Signal podcast is part of an online community which is making use of new technologies in ways which develop social ties and support common interests. Through the creation of their own model of promotion these individuals are involved in the reconfiguring of popular culture from the world of big business into the more emotive networks of human discourse. Both the individuals involved and the larger media economy is served by such fan involvement, although this developing relationship may be challenged in the future by copyright restrictions.

References:

Blanchard, A. Blogs as Virtual Communities: Identifying a Sense of Community
in the Julie/Julia Project, Into the Blogosphere. Ed. Smiljana Antonijevic, Laura Gurak, Laurie Johnson, Clancy Ratliff, and Jessica Reyman, 2004. <http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogs_as_virtual.html>
(Accessed 10/9/05)
Browncoats: Official Serenity Fan Site, Universal Studies, 2005. <http://browncoats.serenitymovie.com/serenity/>
(Accessed 10/9/05)
Chonin, N. When Fox Canceled 'Firefly,' it Ignited an Internet Fan Base Whose Burning Desire for More led to 'Serenity', San Francisco Chronicle Online, 2005. <http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/06/08/DDGQJD4D2O1.DTL&type=printable>
(Accessed 10/9/05)
Correy S. Music of the Blogospheres, Radio National Background Briefing, 2004. <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s1233531.htm>
(Accessed 10/9/05)
Didden, C. Podcasting Legal Issues, Collegiate Broadcasters Inc., 2005. <http://www.collegebroadcasters.org/podcast.shtml>
(Accessed 10/9/05)
Guerilla Marketing – Serenity Discussion Boards, SerenityMovie.net, 2005. <http://signal.serenityfirefly.com/signal.php>
(Accessed 10/9/05)
Haley, K. and Les Howard (hosts), The Signal #4, Serenity Fan Community Podcast, 2005.
<http://archive4.libsyn.com/podcasts/thesignal/signal_004_20050727.mp3>
Episode released: 27/7/05. Shownotes found at <http://signal.serenityfirefly.com/shownotes/signal_004.html>
(Accessed 12/9/05)
Heffernan, V. The Podcast as a New Podium, New York Times, 2005. <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/arts/22heff.html?ei=5090&en=8eafe5fb29be1a8f&ex=1279684800&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print>
(Accessed 10/9/05)
Jenkins, H. Interactive Audiences?: The 'Collective Intelligence' of Media Fans,
Henry Jenkins Publications, 2002.
<http://web.mit.edu/21fms/www/faculty/henry3/collective%20intelligence.html>
(Accessed 10/9/05)
Jenkins, H. Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture, Henry Jenkins Publications. <http://web.mit.edu/21fms/www/faculty/henry3/starwars.html>
(Accessed 10/9/05)
The Signal, Serenity Fan Community Podcast, 2005.
Creators: Les Howard, Kari Haley, J. D. Ravatt, Kevin Bachelder, Jill Arroway,
Carolyn Parkinson, Miranda Thomas, Rich Adams, Clay McClure and Jeremy Neish.
<http://signal.serenityfirefly.com/signal.php>
(Accessed 10/9/05)
Young, K. One Man Band, Guardian Unlimited Online, 2005. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1532392,00.html>
(Accessed 10/9/05)

Daily Source Code Evaluation.....

2005-09-15T22:04:00.000+08:00

iGeneration Critical Evaluation: The Daily Source Code – Adam Curry

Patterns of media consumption have been profoundly altered by a succession of new media technologies which enable average citizens to participate in the archiving, annotation, appropriation, transformation, and recirculation of media content. Participatory culture refers to the new style of consumerism that emerges in this environment. – Henry Jenkins [1]

Adam Curry hosts and produces The Daily Source Code (DSC) podcast, the first of its kind, which began in August 2004[2]. Podcasting is a new form of audio broadcasting[3] that was developed in 2003 by Adam Curry and Dave Winer [4]. Podcasts are syndicated digital audio shows similar in style to traditional radio broadcasts, but with a few notable exceptions: you can listen to them anywhere and anytime on your portable music device; they can be produced by anyone with access to a computer, microphone and internet access. The core technology behind podcasting is syndicated feeds built using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and aggregators in the form of Curry’s original iPodder, and more recently Apple’s iTunes. In 2003, Curry was dissatisfied with audio streaming due to the high cost of bandwidth usage that it involved, it restricts you to sitting at the computer, and you can’t save streaming audio for when you want to listen to it[5]. Curry thought about the delivery of audio files and spoke to Dave Winer about RSS feeds, which led to Winer developing RSS Enclosures[6]. With the technology available to deliver subscription style mp3s, Curry went about trying to create an ‘aggregator’, (i.e. a “…standalone application that would download these mp3 files and automatically store them on my iPod”), and using the basic programming tool Applescript he developed the first podcast aggregator iPodder[7]. From this The Daily Source Code was born, initially as a “…proof of concept for iPodder”[8] but also as a way to attract developers and encourage them to make iPodder better [9]. Curry, once a famous MTV host and radio DJ, is still the most notable celebrity behind the podcasting ‘revolution’[10]. Although some have become bitter due to Curry’s enthusiasm for taking all the limelight and credit at times [11]. Nevertheless, his Daily Source Code explores issues relating to its development and future, promotes other podcasts, as well as functioning as a lifestyle show, even discussing his family’s hilarious forays in day to day life.

Curry’s DSC is one of the central forces behind podcasting. His show highlights what podcasting is all about, as well as debating some of the larger issues and new innovations required to take the podcasting medium further into the future. Curry makes it quite obvious in every show that the DSC is not produced from a studio, but simply through his laptop and portable workstation. As Annalee Newitz of Wired Magazine witnessed firsthand, podcasting can be done anywhere, even by Curry in his car[12].

One of the major potentials of podcasting as a medium is its development as a ‘grassroots’ media phenomenon. Prior to podcasting, blogs took advantage of syndication and everyday citizens with access to computers began to take on the role of ‘grassroots journalism’ or reporting. Now, podcasting is the next logical step, focusing not on text but audio [13]. As Tod Maffin, a producer of CBC radio states on his blog,

They are podcasters: citizen broadcasters who arm themselves with rudimentary recording tools, free software, and a speedy internet connection. And like the bloggers before them, they are changing the nature of the medium. Podcasters may indeed revitalize the art of radio itself[14].

Podcasting is all about consumers becoming producers; as Henry Jenkins has argued, “…The Net opened up new space for public discussions of media content and the Web became an important showcase for grassroots cultural production”[15]. Traditional radio producers did not take full advantage of the digital revolution and opportunities created by the internet. Curry notes in DSC episode 217 that radio’s only venture into the online domain was simply audio streaming of their broadcast station[16]. This failed due to the amount of bandwidth required to stream audio, and also the essential pleasure of radio, which is that you do not listen to it in front of the computer, but in your car or by portable device. Curry picked up on this, making use of new technology such as Apple’s iPod to bring radio back to life, with new and innovative content related to today’s online society; the DSC’s introduction calls podcasting “The next generation of radio content in my ear”[17]. Podcasting’s major offering is also its ability to be listened to at anytime, many have described it as ‘TiVo’ for audio, and this has opened up a range of possibilities for audio and video to be mixed as well [18]. This has enabled audio content to be used in conjunction with other media in a previously impossible way, such as the Sci Fi Channel’s Battlestar Gallactica episodic podcast commentaries which have been a great success [19]. While many attempts by TV to take advantage audio have failed, such as CBS simulcast of David Letterman, and the notorious failed Family Guy podcasts, new possibilities for audio are occurring through podcasting[20].

Curry’s DSC often contains musical segments from the PodsafeMusicNetwork, a collection of copyright free musical tracks produced by unknown or ‘garage’ type bands, set up by Curry and the fellow creators of PodShow.com. As Curry notes, amateur music is often very ‘professional’ sounding, with grassroots bands using the same recording tools as professional recorders. However, mainstream radio rarely promotes new talent, while podcasts on the other hand have a reciprocal type arrangement with new artists; once they have their music in the ‘Podsafe’ any Podcast producer can use it, increasing their audience and fan base, and prompting CD sales. This benefits new musical talent, but also the Podcast producers, as Annalee Newitz notes:

…Partly in political protest and partly out of legal necessity, podcast music tends to favour songs that aren’t policed by the Recording Industry Association of America. Because listeners download each show, producers aren’t eligible for the kinds of broadcast license available to radio stations and webcasters[21].

However, due to the nature of podcasting in that it is a private download that can be archived by the user, Podcast producers can operate outside the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations [22]. Curry often makes allusions to this such as in DSC, number 217 [23]. This allows Podcasts to act as a medium through which consumers, turned producers, can listen and produce content which would not be allowed on traditional radio. Curry can talk about pornography and openly badmouth Virgin Atlantic (e.g. in DSC 237) while other podcasts such as Whole Wheat’s Kloss contain repeated swearing in their comedic discussions and others can even discuss the latest sex tips [24]. Furthermore, Curry often features ‘Mashups’ from Mashuptown.com in his DSC, something that traditional radio would be unable to due to Copyright Law, notably illustrated in the notorious ‘Grey Album’ incident [25]. However there are still many obstacles and concerns raised about podcasting and music; some producers see it as currently impossible to turn their shows into podcasts due to the legal issues regarding copyright of mainstream music, and furthermore the fear that podcast show music may be pirated leading to another ‘Napster’ instance [26]. Curry’s invention and the DSC ‘proof of concept’ podcasts act as an instance through which many of the problems in participatory culture online can be challenged, and provides a space for new cultural products which traditional media cannot deliver due to outdated or overtly restrictive laws and attitudes.

Adam Curry’s DSC while being a ‘grassroots’ type production still maintains an air of professionalism lacking form many of the current podcasts. Podcasting is noticeable for its informal style of talk, as Stephan Baker suggests, “most [podcasters] lack the technical expertise of radio vets, and they have no pressure to race along”[27]. In both Curry’s DSC 217 and 237, the phone rings in the background and Curry apologises and either ignores or answers[28]. This informality is something unheard of on traditional radio, but often adds to the charm of podcasting and Curry can get away with it far easier than others due to his previous professional experience at MTV and traditional radio. Curry’s podcasting evangelism and professional background are key factors in getting podcasting support added to Apple’s iTunes 4.9 release in June 2005, helping to take ‘podcasting mainstream’[29]. However, as many have noticed iTunes gives preference to the new ‘commercial podcasts’ that have resulted from Apple’s connections and deals with traditional media producers [30]. Curry and his DSC come to podcasting’s aid once more in episode 217, where Curry discusses bandwidth problems for independent or ‘indie’ podcasters[31]. Curry often promotes other podcasters on his DSC, but the downside is that, after a promo is played the promoted podcast tends to get flooded with new users who take up bandwidth[32]. Adam realises that for podcasters the expense of bandwidth and the limits of severs and internet providers could run indie podcasters out of business as podcast popularity grows. In DSC 217 he discusses the idea of podcasts supported by an advertisement or promotion at the beginning or end of the show, but understandably Curry wonders if this commercialisation will sit well with indie podcast producers[33]. He suggests that if the popularity of podcasting grows, the podcaster may even get a cut of the advertising if his show is successful. This idea appears to be directly linked to the recently developed Podshow.com site, which Curry has co-created and is designed to be an informative and useful tool for not only podcast listeners but also producers. While iTunes did a lot to bring the world of podcasting into mainstream awareness, it did not however educate or provide much help for the ‘indie’ podcasters or those new to the ‘Podcast Revolution’. Curry it seems is once again, through his DSC and his other internet projects working in support of podcasting, helping to overcome the remaining obstacles preventing podcasting reaching every possible online user.

Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code is perhaps the ‘holy grail’ of the podcasting world, it was the original ‘proof of concept’ podcast, and today functions as a central discussion area for almost everything related to the world and politics of podcasting. Podcasting is still in its infancy, and some have criticised it for not trying to be more than simply ‘radio’, but I think it is trying to do more than that, and as a medium has far more potential than ‘traditional radio’[34]. Curry is the most notable celebrity of podcasting, it’s ‘pin-up boy’ and hero, and he is still there promoting his fellow podcasters, increasing the medium’s popularity, and aiding its continued growth through such future initiatives as Podshow.com and it affiliates.

By Hilary Wheaton

[1] Henry Jenkins, "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence and Participatory Culture," in David Thorburn and Henry Jenkins (eds.) Rethinking Media Change (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003) found at http://web.mit.edu/21fms/www/faculty/henry3/starwars.html (last accessed 11.09.05)

[2] “Adam Curry”, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curry and Adam Curry, Daily Source Code, http://dailysourcecode.com/ (last accessed 10.09.05)

[3] Broadcasting is not technically the correct way to describe podcasting, the term ‘norrowcasting’ is some times used since podcasts aren’t transmitted via airwaves, but via internet connection in specific downloads. However, for the purposes of explaining the basics of podcasting I find it easier to go with an already known term, especially since it reminds the reader of previous audio in the form of traditional radio.

[4] Adam Curry, “History”, iPodder.org, (2004) found at http://ipodder.org/history (last accessed 11.09.05)

[5] Podcasting has not overcome this problem yet, but as I mention later in my evaluation, Curry is interested in overcoming the bandwidth restrictions that podcasting faces, and urges other podcasters to try and think of solutions.

[6] Adam Curry, “History”, iPodder.org. An explanation of RSS is available from Wikipedia, “…The technology behind RSS allows you to subscribe to websites that have provided RSS feeds, these are typically sites that change or add content regularly [i.e. blogs]. To use this technology you need to set up some type of aggregation service. Think of this aggregation service as your personal mailbox. You then have to subscribe to the sites that you want to get updates on. Unlike typical subscriptions to pulp-based newspapers and magazines, your RSS subscriptions are free, but they typically only give you a line or two of each article or post along with a link to the full article or post.” From “Rss File Format”, Wikipedia, (2005), at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29 (last accessed 13.09.05)

[7] Adam Curry, “History”, iPodder.org

[8] Annalee Newitz, “Adam Curry Wants to Make You an iPod Radio Star”, Wired Magazine, 13.03, (2005) found at http://wired-vig.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/curry.html/ (last accessed 11.09.05)

[9] Adam Curry, “History”, iPodder.org

[10] Annalee Newitz, Wired Magazine

[11] For information on Curry’s own self promotion, an example interview causing problems is Xeni Jardin ,“Audience With the Podfather”, Wired News, (2005) at http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,67525,00.html (last accessed 13.09.05) and Charles Cooper, “Who invented podcasting? Who cares?”, CNET News.com, 2005 at http://news.com.com/2061-10787_3-5717598.html

[12] Annalee Newitz, Wired Magazine

[13] BusinessWeek Online notes: “…The heart of the podcasting movement is in the world of blogs…in a blogsphere that has grown largely on the written word, podcasts add a soundtrack…what’s special about podcasts is that they’re dispatched directly to users who ask for them” Stephan Baker, “The Lowdown on Podcasting”, BusinessWeek Online, (2005) found at http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2005/tc20050524_9688_tc_211.htm (last accessed 11.09.05)

[14] Tod Maffin, iloveradio.org, “How Podcasting Will Save Radio”, (2004) found at http://radio.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/10/5/155523.html (last accessed 11.09.05) Emphasis added in quote.

[15] Henry Jenkins, "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence and Participatory Culture,"

[16] Adam Curry, Daily Source Code for July 29^th 2005 #217, at http://radio.weblogs.com/0001014/categories/dailySourceCode/2005/07/29.html, mp3 download at: http://mp3.dailysourcecode.podshow.com/217-DSC-2005-07-29.mp3 (last accessed 10.09.05)

[17] Adam Curry, DSC 217.

[18] Daniel Terdiman, “Podcasts: New Twist on Net Audio”, Wired News, (2004) found at http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,65237,00.html (last accessed 11.09.05) TiVo famously allowed consumers to record television shows in a digital format and then skip advertisements, watch shows whenever they wanted, and to archive TV shows in a digital format which could be shared with others online.

[19] Randy Dotinga, “TV Tries Shaky Hand at Podcasting”, Wired News, (2005) found at http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,68503,00.html (last accessed 11.09.05). The Battlestar Gallactica podcast commentaries are released online at the same time each episode is aired, so consumers can listen to the commentary hours after the show is broadcast, rather than waiting months for a DVD released version. See http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/ (last accessed 13.09.05)

[20] Randy Dotinga, “TV Tries Shaky Hand at Podcasting”

[21] Annalee Newitz, Wired Magazine

[22] Annalee Newitz, Wired Magazine. We also have similar conditions for Australian produced podcasts.

[23] Adam Curry, DSC 217

[24] Annalee Newitz, Wired Magazine and Adam Curry, Daily Source Code for Thursday September the 8^th 2005 # 237, at http://radio.weblogs.com/0001014/categories/dailySourceCode/2005/09/08.html, mp3 download at: http://mp3.dailysourcecode.podshow.com/DSC-237-2005-09-08/DSC-237-2005-09-08.mp3 (last accessed 10.09.05)

[25] Mash-ups are remixes of more than one song, mixed together to form a new tune. The most famous Mash-up example is DJ Danger Mouse’s “The Grey Album” in which he remixed the music from the Beatles “White Album” and Jay-Z’s “Black Album”. The album was branded illegal due to copyright, and this led to the notorious Grey Tuesday, on which ‘participating Web sites and blogs offered Danger Mouse’s mash-up for download in defiance of EMI’s legal threats’. See, Sam Howard-Spink, “Grey Tuesday, online cultural activism and the mash-up of music and politics”, First Monday, 9.10, (2004) at http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_10/howard/ (last accessed 13.09.05). Since then, Mash-ups have occupied a grey area in copyright law, and therefore don’t appear on traditional radio. However, Curry often features them on his podcasts. Curry however is becoming increasingly aware of the problems with copyright associated with music, and in his DSC episode 231, he discusses the problems with licensing, and highlights possible loopholes in the legal restrictions. He also notes that Mash-ups have, at least on his show, led to sales on iTunes of the un-mixed versions of the songs. See Adam Curry, Daily Source Code for Tuesday August the 30^th 2005 #231 at http://radio.weblogs.com/0001014/categories/dailySourceCode/2005/08/30.htm mp3 download at: http://mp3.dailysourcecode.podshow.com/DSC-231-2005-08-30/DSC-231-2005-08-30.mp3 (last accessed 13.09.05)

[26] Michelle Kessler, “Storm clouds gather over podcasting”, USATODAY.com, (2005), http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2005-08-03-podcasting-usat_x.htm (last accessed 13.09.05) Kessler’s article notes in reference to a specific radio station: “Podcasting is a great way for KEXP to reach thousands of new listeners, especially those outside of Seattle, Richards says. But the station can't podcast programs such as John in the Morning — Richards' variety mix of independent and mainstream music — because record companies haven't provided an easy, affordable way for podcasters to license songs. That's why most podcasts today are talk radio.”

[27] Stephan Baker, BusinessWeek Online

[28] Adam Curry, DSC 217 and 237

[29] “First Look: Apple iTunes 4.9 Podcast Support”, Podcasting News, (2005) found at http://www.podcastingnews.com/archives/2005/06/first_look_appl.html (last accessed 11.09.05). The iTunes music software and its one-click links to the Apple Music Store have ensured that iTunes is the single most popular music management software in the world. Thus, the addition of a podcast directory in iTunes greatly increased public awareness of podcasts, although not necessarily increasing their understanding of the medium.

[30] “First Look: Apple iTunes 4.9 Podcast Support”, Podcasting News

[31] Adam Curry, DSC 217

[32] This is a problem since many podcasters pay for the amount of ‘traffic’ which results from their files being downloaded. If a promotion of the DSC increases the amount of listeners by ten-fold, the resulting bandwidth cost for the show’s producers also increase ten-fold etc.

[33] Adam Curry, DSC 217

[34] Adrian Miles, “Podcasting and Vogcasting”, vlog 3.0, (2004) found at http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vlog/archives/2004/10/19/podcasting-and-vogcasting/ (last accessed 13.09.05) I think Adrian is being too judgmental of a technology still in its infancy, and if we look at how such podcasting activists as Curry are working within the medium, there is no doubt that within a few years links, video and other media will no doubt be added. Not only this, but podcasts as we have seen in this evaluation can be used in conjunction with other media, such a TV shows, something previously unaccomplished by traditional radio.

Please Request if you want bibliography......
and no, dont worry, I wont do this in PINK!!!

Critical Evaluation Exercise

2005-09-15T21:09:00.000+08:00

THE CREATIVE COMMONS BLOG: 'REBUILDING FREE CULTURE'.[1]

As new technologies rapidly continue to develop, digital communication theorists have come to perceive a shifting divide between the products of 'personal media' and 'big media,'[2] which has thrown the implications of traditional copyright laws into confusion. Readily available media software now gives former consumers the ability to copy, borrow, manipulate and build upon 'big media' products and take them into new narrative spheres in which the original creators do not have agency. This transferral of power has raised questions about the scope of intellectual property law in cyberspace, with commentators such as Lawrence Lessig viewing the larger entertainment industries as championing a body of increasingly protective laws which serve to 'lock down culture and control creativity.' [3] In the midst of what has been perceived as a 'culture war,'[4] Lessig and others identified a need for "balance, compromise and moderation"[5] and in 2001 a US-based, non-profit corporation[6] called Creative Commons was founded on this premise. The mandate of the Creative Commons organisation is "to build a layer of reasonable, flexible copyright in the face of increasingly restrictive default rules."[7]
By evaluating the organisation's blog through the lens of this mission statement, taking into account the interactive nature of the blog structure itself as well as its content, we can attempt to evaluate the way the Creative Commons blog[8] can be situated into debates surrounding participatory culture and digital communication.

Blogs can be thought of as dynamic web pages which are being continually updated by either a single author or group of authors. They contain written text, pictures and links to other blogs, web sites and places of interest in cyberspace. A blog (which is a shortening of the term 'web log') is generally presided over by the person who created it, often the primary author.[9] In terms of understanding the relevance of blogs to the ever-changing realm of participatory culture, digital media theorist Henry Jenkins identifies a positive influence arising in the form of blog-users:
"At a time when many dot coms have failed, blogging is on the rise. We're in a lull between waves of commercialization in digital media, and bloggers are seizing the moment, potentially increasing cultural diversity and lowering barriers to cultural participation."[10]
By incorporating this type of interactive site into their organisation, Creative Commons are implicitly reinforcing an advocacy of knowledge-sharing in cyberspace.[11]

The postings on the blog pertain to examples of culture and technology that exist under Creative Commons licensing as well as providing the methodology behind it. The contributors provide a mix of instructional and promotional material as well as immediate updates on developments within this sphere. As an example of the blog's structure, the July 2005[12] posts are made up of twelve entries by three main authors. The authors themselves may change but this pattern of a small number of trained staff producing many articles recurs throughout the archives. As one of the main criticisms of information accessed via the internet often relates to the reliability and original source of the material in question, the ability to access the name of the author and follow links to professional profiles of some of them makes this blog distinctive. Unlike many blogs, it is intended for public consumption and promotes accountability, if not consistent interactivity.

Housed at Stanford University, this organisation produces an instance of digital communication that is bound by academic aspirations, yet must also balance these standards with the level of content accessibility required to spread the word about Creative Commons licensing effectively. Lawrence Lessig, as a member of its Board of Directors, outlines:
"Our aim is to build a movement of consumers and producers of content (…) who help build the public domain and, by their work, demonstrate the importance of the public domain to other creativity."[13]
In terms of how the content and authorship structure of the Creative Commons blog operates in this context, it provides information on how 'Some Rights Reserved' licensing sits as a balancing force between the two extremes of hyper-protective 'All Rights Reserved' clauses and the rather unrealistic 'No Rights Reserved' practices.[14] It does this in an immediate way that uses the potential of new technology: incorporating academic accountability with an accessible use of language that would not be tenable in published print form. The content acts to promote free access to and reasonable use of creative products and relies on links to guide readers to these objects, so they can be viewed alongside the written article. The immediacy and interconnectedness between the content and what it points to are unique to digital media, as is the component of this particular blog which allows the user the ability to access information on Creative Commons jurisdiction and media products that are tailored to his or her specific nationality.

In Darknet, commentator J.D Lasica states that, in the digital media revolution
"The future of movies, music, television, computer games and the Internet are all on the line in the clash between the irresistible force of technological innovation and the immovable object of the entertainment media powers."[15]
If the position of the Creative Commons blog can be interpreted as attempting to provide a moderate middle ground in this clash through creating a new concept of intellectual property protection, the contribution it makes is through showing how this idea can be applied in practice. The organisation has adopted a free-access blog, which makes available the tools for protecting creative work without locking it down. It promotes the growing possibilities of participatory culture through its advertisement of free-access technologies and media products that can be engaged with in a manner which empowers digital media users. The frontlines in the battles of 'big media' and 'personal media' are always shifting and the immediacy of the blog form allows for the Creative Commons staff who maintain it to actively point out new developments. Perhaps taking up the idea that the best way to lead is through example, the blog provides a massive array of links to digital media items which, through the adoption of Creative Commons licensing, become a positive demonstration of the potential fluidity and beneficial exchange of information in an age where copyright laws are becoming increasingly extreme. The growing success of the US-based movement is apparent in the way twenty-three countries have now taken up the project in bodies known as 'iCommons.'[16] As old copyright laws continue to groan under the strain of being stretched, prodded and poked into directions they were never conceived to cover, media commentators like Lasica declare, "we need new rules for the digital age."[17] The Creative Commons blog provides a touchstone for that which the movement advocates: the democratisation of participatory culture through the provision of easy-to-use intellectual property practices which empower digital media users to freely exchange information, while retaining ownership of their creations.

[1] LESSIG, L. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. New York, 2004. http://www.free-culture.cc/freeculture.pdf ("Afterward") p. 282.
[2] LASICA, J.D. Darknet Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation. 2005. Darknet mini-book: http://www.darknet.com/2005/05/darknet_miniboo.html
[3] LESSIG, L. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. New York, 2004.
[4] LASICA, J.D. Darknet Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation. 2005. Darknet mini-book: http://www.darknet.com/2005/05/darknet_miniboo.html
[5] As stated in "'Some Rights Reserved': Building a Layer of Reasonable Copyright." From the Creative Commons website. http://creativecommons.org/about/history
[6] LESSIG, L. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. 2004. p. 283.
[7] As stated in "'Some Rights Reserved': Building a Layer of Reasonable Copyright." From the Creative Commons website. http://creativecommons.org/about/history

[8]Creative Commons Blog http://creativecommons.org/weblog/
[9] BLANCHARD, A. "Blogs as Virtual Communities: Identifying a Sense of Community in the Julie/Julia Project." Into the Blogosphere. Ed. Smiljana Antonijevic, Laura Gurak, Laurie Johnson, Clancy Ratliff, and Jessica Reyman, 2004, http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogs_as_virtual.html

[10] JENKINS, H. "Blog This!" Technology Review.com. March, 2002. http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/02/03/jenkins0302.asp?p=1
[11]A negative aspect however could lie in the inability to add comments at the present (September 2005). 'Comments will be re-enabled soon' is tagged at the bottom of each post, although looking through the archive it is clear that comments were once more frequent. For example, the post titled "Raymond vanderWoning's Photos" received five additional comments: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/3802 August 2003
[12]GARLICK, M., LINKSVAYER, M., YERGLER, N. Creative Commons Blog, July 2005. http://creativecommons.org/weblog/archive/2005/08
[13] LESSIG, L. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. 2004. pp. 283-284.
[14] Ibid. "Afterword." p. 285.
[15] LASICA, J.D. Darknet Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation. 2005. Darknet mini-book: http://www.darknet.com/2005/05/darknet_miniboo.html

[16] As noted in iCommons.AU: Creative Commons Australia http://creativecommons.org.au/about 2005.
[17] LASICA, J.D. Darknet Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation. 2005. Darknet mini-book: http://www.darknet.com/2005/05/darknet_miniboo.html

REFERENCES:

BLANCHARD, A. "Blogs as Virtual Communities: Identifying a Sense of Community in the Julie/Julia Project." Into the Blogosphere. Ed. Smiljana Antonijevic, Laura Gurak, Laurie Johnson, Clancy Ratliff, and Jessica Reyman, 2004, http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogs_as_virtual.html

GARLICK,M., LINKSVAYER,M., YERGLER,N. et al Creative Commons Blog, 2005. http://creativecommons.org/weblog/archive/2005/08

JENKINS, H. "Blog This." Technology Review.com. March, 2002. http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/02/03/jenkins0302.asp?p=1

LESSIG, L. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. New York, 2004. http://www.freeculture.cc/freeculture.pdf

LASICA, J.D. Darknet Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation. 2005. Darknet mini-book: http://www.darknet.com/2005/05/darknet_miniboo.html

"'Some Rights Reserved': Building a Layer of Reasonable Copyright." Creative Commons. 2005. http://creativecommons.org/about/history

iCommons.AU: Creative Commons Australia. 2005. http://creativecommons.org.au/about

Critical Evaluation Exercise

2005-09-15T21:01:00.000+08:00

A weblog, nowadays more commonly known as a blog, is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles and is normally in reverse chronological order. Although most early weblogs were manually updated, tools to automate the maintenance of such sites made them accessible to a much larger population, and the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging". Here, a browser refers to a software application that enables a user to display and interact with HTML documents, which are used to define the semantics of a document, hosted by web servers or held in a file system. The tools for editing, organizing, and publishing weblogs are variously referred to as "content management systems", "publishing platforms", "weblog software", and simply "blogware".

Blogs range in scope from individual diaries to arms of political campaigns, media programs, and corporations. They range in scale from the writings of one occasional author, to the collaboration of a large community of writers. Many weblogs enable visitors to leave public comments, which can lead to a community of readers centered around the blog; others are non-interactive. The totality of weblogs or blog-related websites is often called the blogosphere. When a large amount of activity, information and opinion erupts around a particular subject or controversy in the blogosphere, it is sometimes called a blogstorm or blog swarm. The format of weblogs varies, from simple bullet lists of hyperlinks, which are a reference in a hypertext document to another document or other resource, to article summaries or complete articles with user-provided comments and ratings. Individual weblog entries are almost always date and time-stamped, with the newest post at the top of the page, and reader comments often appearing below it. Because incoming links to specific entries are important to many weblogs, most have a way of archiving older entries and generating a static address for them; this static link is referred to as a permalink. The latest headlines, with hyperlinks and summaries, are frequently offered in weblogs in the RSS or Atom XML format, to be read with a feed reader. [Wikipedia]

Dan Gillmor’s Blog is a site of, by and for the people of the San Francisco Bay Area, with special attention to the region’s primary economic engine which is technology. If you look at the origin of the blog, Dan Gillmor, who spent 10 years writing a column and weblog at the San Jose Mercury News, and Michael Goff conceived Dan Gillmor’s Blog and are behind getting it established; the two are partners in San Francisco-based Grassroots Media Inc.
Working on technical and other features of the site is Jay Campbell and initial investment funding has been provided by Mitch Kapor, the President and Chair of the Open Source Applications Foundation (www.osafoundation.org), a non-profit organization he founded in 2001 to promote the development and acceptance of high-quality application software developed and distributed using open source methods and licenses and the Omidyar Network, an online community network. Plans are to quickly bring in other hosts, sources, and community journalists.

The people who use and enjoy the Dan Gillmor’s Blog are behind the blog as well as the reason for its existence. These are the people who read stories, who trade tips on how to make living in San Francisco better, who find a point of view to agree with, who feel better that the Dan Gillmor’s Blog exists to be vigilant in protecting the interests of the community. Beyond that, according to Dan Gillmor, everyone who pitches a story, encourages someone to get involved, or agrees to be interviewed by one of the journalists of Dan Gillmor is behind Dan Gillmor’s Blog. Every mainstream source that the bloggers and journalists of Dan Gillmor’s Blog link to is part of it. Every advertisers, promotional sponsor, and local merchant partner is behind Dan Gillmor’s Blog. Everyone who writes a piece, jots a comment about a story, or posts an idea to the forums is behind Dan Gillmor’s Blog. It’s the people who take the time to care, to correct the copy, catch the typos, and who check that names are spelled correctly. In essence, people of the San Francisco Bay Area are the tipsters, forum posters, journalists, editors, or enthusiastic readers and feedback givers of the blog.

Grounded on Dan Gillmor’s underlying conception that the people who are in the scenes or tied to them in some way know more about the technology, culture and other scenes in the Bay Area and are best equipped to tell the stories of the remarkable region, the aim of the creators of Dan Gillmor’s Blog is for the blog to become a trusted community news and information site by providing collaboration spaces that will help the community create conversations with words, pictures, audio and video that range from casual chat to what is often called citizen journalism.

If we look at this blog in relation to participatory culture, the blog fits well into the current trend of citizen journalism, which is the notion that we are moving away from the lecture mode of journalism—the one-to-many manufacturing process that gained sway in the 20th century—to something radically less centralized and more democratic. The Internet is the first platform that lets anyone be a publisher easily as well as cheaply. The resulting free-for-all has been exhilarating. But there’s also room for something in between the lecture mode of yesterday’s news and the anything-goes shouting match we can observe on some blogs and in some chatrooms. I can observe that the creators of this blog and the writers of the blog are working together to find that middle ground.

Dan Gillmor feels the need for all the ideas on how bottom-up journalism should work; on how to make use of technology to make it work better; how to foster its adoption; what new business models they might forge; and much more. Dan Gillmor plans to talk about all those notions, and more, on the forums in this blog even as people practice the conversation.

Let’s consider this blog in relation to previous media such as print media and radio. Dan Gillmor has strong belief that citizens can enhance and augment what’s out there in addition to keeping mainstream media on the ball. In addition, Dan believes Dan Gillmor’s Blog can help fill in some gaps, namely the space between the free-for-all of the blogging world which we he also embraces and the top-down model of traditional journalism. Dan emphasizes the point that he is by no means attempting to take over traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, broadcasters and other Web media. Dan Gillmor’s Blog is intended for community to regularly point toward those sites’ high-quality work with the undeniable fact in mind that the Web is about linking, also acknowledging that end users need the best trusted information from whatever the sources.

Lastly, I would like to add that when compared to more personal weblogs that I have casually accessed previously which feature online diary or journal of a particular person that allow anonymous comments, Dan Gillmor’s blog is unique in that no anonymous comments are allowed and that only registered members can post comments and participate in forums. Another unique character about this blog, I believe, is that it is centered in a region, in this case, San Francisco; more often than not, blogs are used to communicate globally. Finally the way the category is divided (News, Work Hard, Live Well, Change the World, Citizen Journalism) makes it easier to find the blog of interest; also each category deals with significant issues in contemporary world.

List of References

Gillmor Dan. 2004, We the Media Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People, O'Reilly Media, Inc., California

Globe of Blogs, [Online], Available from: http://www.globeofblogs.com/ [10/09/05]

Microsoft Community Blogs, [Online], Available from:
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/blogs/PortalHome.mspx [09/09/05]

[Edit:] "Blog", Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weblogs, [09/09/05]

iGeneration Prototype "Proof-of-Concept" Podcast

2005-09-08T23:50:00.000+08:00

To give you a bit of context for thinking through podcasting, here's a prototype podcast which I've recorded. The notes to go with the show are below. Please have a listen to the podcast before our next seminar.

Shownotes

Resources
[X] Audacity- Free Digital Audio Editor and Recorder
[X] Verbatim Headset with Mic - Deluxe 41802

Podcast Examples
[06:53] Adam Curry's Daily Source Code [Excerpt from DSC #215] [Direct MP3 Download]
[09:20] [Cruisebox, 'On A Podcast']
[17:06] The Signal [Excerpt from Signal #7] [Direct MP3 Download]
[22:04] The AudioBlogging Manifesto [Direct MP3 Link] [Transcript]

To Subcribe to the iGeneration Podcast:
The iLecture system will make all of the podcasts authored by people participating in this course available as mp3 downloads here, but if you're using iTunes, iPodder or any other "podcatcher" to listen to podcasts, then you can simply cut'n'paste this XML/RSS feed [http://ilectures.uwa.edu.au/ilectures/
podcast.lasso?ut=878&key=e35ac226b68ed562ffd593bbb82e8fb1] and then the podcasts will come to you whenever your podcast list is updated!

In iTunes 4.9 or 5.0, click on the Podcasts icon in your "Source" pane, go to the "Advanced" menu, and then click "Subscribe to Podcast", then paste in the XML/RSS feed above and iTunes should do the rest. Just remember to check for new podcasts periodically, and your iGeneration podcasts should come straight to you!

[iLecture/Lectopia Download - Mp3 - 44.4Mb]
[OurMedia Download Mirror - 29.5Mb, MP3]

The Trouble With Technology....

2005-09-08T17:03:00.000+08:00

....There is always someone who doesn't understand!!
Sorry, but yesterday I was getting seriously confused over Podcasting history and what RSS feeds and aggregators and all that...Luckily now I understand so I can be one of the cool crowd!! All that's left is to explain it in a clear and succinct way.......oh dear....

Copyright, Intellectual Property, Fair Use etc

2005-09-05T18:01:00.000+08:00

I know this was all discussed a while ago, but I came across something interesting today as I was looking at this week's readings. In the Henry Jenkins interview by John Borland he writes "The African American Slaves told stories about Brer Rabbit". Ok so I have looked into this and cant locate my Brer Rabbit books (which technically arent mine but my brothers!), but did Enid Blighton actually acknowledge that her famous Brer Rabbit stories were not her own but belonged to a folklore storyteller and singer called Uncle Remus?

I think if she didnt, and copyright and intellectual property weren't applied it raises some interesting points!

I think we may have found the opposite of Mickey Mouse...well, Brer Rabbit probably was until Enid had anything to say about it! But now he has probably been caught in the copyright trap!!!

Does anyone other than me remember Brer Rabbit? and Mr Fox?

I suddenly feel uncomfortable.....

2005-09-04T20:51:00.000+08:00

Found this on Postsecret and I just had to post it here...it isnt related really but its interesting, and Postsecret has been mentioned before....
Everyone talks about stuff like this happening, but then to see someone write into Postsecret that they do it kinda freaked me out!

Journalism reaches new peaks

2005-09-03T17:18:00.000+08:00

Makes you wonder who is more important, the technology or the reporting?
Also its just good for a simple laugh...

New Orleans: citizen journalism

2005-09-02T14:40:00.000+08:00

OK guys,

Here is some REAL LIVE citizen journalism happening RIGHT NOW. An ex-army guy and his work mates are trapped in an office building in New Orleans with a generator, which means they can run their computers and report what's going on... It's scary, check it out:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/
Seems as though the American government hasn't even got the people skills to save their own citizens!

Week 8: Fan Culture & The Origins of Participatory Culture

2005-09-01T15:46:00.000+08:00

Hello! This week we shall be delving into the deeply fascinating, and sometimes deeply disturbing, world of fan culture.

Fan culture has existed for a loooong, looooooong time but, with the development of digital technology and the internet, has recently moved into a whole new playing field. Fans, who have long sought the expansion of particular 'narrative universes' so they can relate to and interact with them in new ways, can be considered pioneers in testing the boundaries of, and expanding upon, the interactive capabilities of new technology especially in relation to creative production and broadcast. What was once private creativity has stepped into the public sphere. The tools of production that were once only in the hands of a few are now available to more people than ever before. One of the reasons why fans are so important to the growth of participatory culture is because, due to their realm of interest, they picked up the tools and started creating. Whether it be websites, fan fiction, digital film or the creation of online communities, fans have helped take mainstream media products (and the potential of new technologies) to the next level.

[X] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction This is a general intro into fan culture, specifically the different categories of fan fiction. Just skim through this and use it as a point of reference if you get confused by any of the categories of fan fiction mentioned in the readings:

[X] "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?:Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture" by Henry Jenkins at:
http://web.mit.edu/21fms/www/faculty/henry3/starwars.html
This article is really useful, he just lays it all out. At the end there are links to fan films and it would be good to look at one of the ones he mentions, as there are just soooooo many out there!

[X] 'Star Wars and the Fracas Over Fan Films.'
http://news.com.com/Star+Wars+and+the+fracas+over+fan+films/
2008-7337_3-5690595.html
This is an interview with Henry Jenkins about his thoughts on fan culture, Lucasfilm, Star Trek and Viacom.

[X] 'Private Uses of Cyberspace: Women, Desire, and Fan Culture' by Sharon Cumberland
http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/cumberland.html
I thought this was an interesting look at erotica and the internet. As much as people (eg. grand theft auto situation) want to ignore it, the ease with which users can appropriate new identities on the net makes it(for some) the perfect forum to explore unexpressed desires, fantasies etc. Cumberland relates what she perceives as the liberating effects of anonymity specifically to fan culture and some of its' female-authored fiction. (But don't worry -there aren't any excerpts of it in this article!)

The above are the core readings, below are some things to look at/try if you have extra time or if your curiosity is piqued: http://www.ggower.com/fans/winners.shtml. This site gives awards for the worst -ie. the most fawning andworshipping- of celebrity fansites. Do these give fan culture a bad name? If fan culture is an expansion of a professionally-produced 'narrative universe' so fans can interact with it in a grass-roots way, what is the deal with celebrity fan sites?

To show how massive fan culture is on the net (as if you don't already know!) using any search engine type in any of the following and see how many sites appear: Star Trek, Star Wars, Buffy, Lord of the Rings.

http://fanfilms.net/ To see many fan films on almost anything that has ever been on TV.

"Before the Holodeck: Translating Star Trek Into Digital Media." by Janet Murray and Henry Jenkins http://web.mit.edu/21fms/www/faculty/henry3/holodeck.html (It's really an excuse to read about Star Trek.)

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER, OR TOTALLY DISREGARD:

[X] How have fans helped pioneer participatory culture and what forces does Jenkins see as threatening its development?

[X] What are some of the ways in which internet fan culture could be said to influence mainstream media? (Eg. The franchise obsession and which films do and do not get the go-ahead.) And vice versa?

[X] Fan culture can be said to have the potential to explore and question ideologies of mass culture. Does it? Why/why not?

[X] What is the future of digital fan-filmmaking?

Urgent haha

2005-08-26T17:49:00.000+08:00

Technology is amazing! :)
Have a nice weekend everyone!

Week 7 Seminar: Machinima: From Game Platforms to Animation Studio

2005-08-25T13:13:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone! This week we are looking at Machinima, a new and evolving form of filmmaking.

Machinima (Muh-sheen-eh-mah) artists take the raw materials provided within interactive games and manipulate them in new ways, creating a unique combination of game play, animation, and real world cinematic techniques. By filming within live game space, machinima side-steps the time consuming rendering of each keyframe which occurrs in traditional animation, and costs drastically less than real world filmmaking.

By using game characters as actors, manipulating their behaviours and reccording voiceovers, machinima artists can give their 3D worlds a depth and humanity beyond the usual shoot-em-up mentality of interactive gaming. A quick introduction to the concept of machinima can be found at Machinima.org's FAQ page: http://www.machinima.org/faq.html

The readings this week are:

The Xbox Auteurs -
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/07/
magazine/07MACHINI.html?ex=1281067200&en
=a0b469a4346f3cbb&ei=5090&partner=
rssuserland&emc=rss

Machinima & the Filmmaker's Virtual Immersion -
http://www.luciferjones.org/machinima.htm

The Machinima Standard - (This reading is a tad long... but hang on, because it's quite specific and I hope it will give a bit of an insight into the technical challenges involved in creating machinima.)
http://www.machinima.com/article.php?article=423

One Word for you Hollywood: Machinima - (Nice and short...:)
http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/12/technology/
machinima_hollywood/

Some questions to consider:

Is this the beginning of the end for the traditional film industry? Or is machinima a fad which will fade after prolonged exposure? (Like reality TV, or Lycra bodysuits)
What relationship might we predict between game developers, machinima artists and the film industry in the future? Will they be partners or competitors?
If you were a machinima artist, what would you like to explore in terms of genre, different games and concepts? Would you go for hard hitting political drama or light entertainment? Why?
How might machinima operate on a deeper level, as self reflexive tool to explore human interactions and community within the game space?

For a great example of a very new machinima series begun just last month, go to: http://www.thisspartanlife.com/ They have taken the talk show format and put it in real time game space with hilarious results! (Makes you wonder where the future of Jerry Springer may be!)

Downloading a few clips from http://www.machinima.com/ could also be fun... although be warned downloading time can be veeeery slow at busy times.

In respect to wiki

2005-08-19T13:32:00.000+08:00

If anyone is colourblind, or has finds it hard to read my last post in purple/pink, please inform me and I shall adjust it.

Also, I am aware there are a lot of links, so if anyone has problems with them, or finding the information, please contact me and I will be glad to help.

Regards
Hilary

Week 6 Seminar: Wikis - The Wikipedia, Collective Intelligence and Communal Authorship

2005-08-16T20:35:00.000+08:00

This week, we are looking at the wonderful world of Wiki! What, I hear you ask is a Wiki?

“A wiki is a web application that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows anyone to edit the content.”

And, I hear you ask, where did you find that definition? The answer to that question would be from Wikipedia, the world famous online encycolpedia, which has over 600,000 entries so far, not to mention its many translations. Wikipedia is perhaps one of the most famous examples of the use of ‘wiki’s’ and has amassed a collection of knowledge through the collaborative work of, basically, anybody on the web. Wikipedia stands in wonderful testament of the “Free Culture” movement, which you may recall from previous readings including Lessig. Its success has been documented by a number of media articles, however some still raise issues of concern over the ‘freely edited’ entries and their accuracry (due to pranks or internet graffiti). Nevertheless, even Microsoft is interested in adding the Wiki editing ability to its famous encylopedia ‘Encarta’.

Below is a list of readings, none of which are excessively long, but all offer some insights into the wonderful world of ‘wiki’ and its implications for free culture.

[X] Thomas Goetz, Wired, “Open Source Everywhere”, Issue 11.11, November 2003 (Print view)

[X] Daniel.H.Pink, Wired, “The Book Stops Here”, Issue 13.03, March 2005 (Please be aware there are four pages to navigate through)

[X] Olga Kharif, Business Week Online, “Wikimania and The Free Culture Movement”, August 2005

These articles should give you some good background knowledge on Wikipedia and Open Source. Some things you might like to consider while reading are:

1) What are the potentials of open source platforms such as Wikipedia? How does it compare to more traditional works such as Britannica?

2) How does Wikipedia and Open Source fit into the notion of ‘Fee Culture’ and how may we consider Open Source in relation to such things as Copyright Law?

3) How serious are the potential concerns over accuracy and misuse of Wikipedia and other Open Source software? What steps do you think could be taken to overcome these issues?

In relation to this third question you might like to take a quick look at the following article which I was originally going to include:

[X] “Webs Wikipedia to Tighten Editorial Rules”- Yahoo News –Courtesy of Reuters, August 2005.

And its response from the founder, Jimmy Wales, who remarks on the complete inaccuracy of the claims here on Lessig’s Blog:

[X] “Media Madness”, Lawrence Lessig’s Blog, August 6^th 2005 Post

Furthermore, in specific relation to Wikipedia itself, you may want to take a look at the following:

[X] Wikipedia itself (Please take note of the different languages available, and Wiki’s sister projects at the bottom of the frontpage).

[X] An example article on Weblogs and how they are defined…..please take a look at the Talk/Discussion Tabs on the page, and see how the individual authors have debated over the definiton. Also look at such things as the History of each article and notice how Wikipedia keeps track of all the changes that are made.

[X] Lessig’s Wiki! Yes that’s right, Lessig has his Wiki edition of CODE AND OTHER LAWS OF CYBERSPACE, which can be edited and updated, obviously with some overseeing by Lessig himself.

[X] You may also like to consider Wikipedia’s potential for reporting on current events such as the “London Bombings”.

Feel free to have a look around Wikipedia and maybe pick out any article that interests you and bring it in for possible discussion. I suggest some funny articles to look at as a starting point on Wikis “Unusual Articles Page”.

And finally, why not have a look at the recent scandal Tama posted about on “Ponderance: "Wikipedia gets Punk'd".

Critical Evaluation Exercise

2005-08-11T10:34:00.000+08:00

Critically evaluate one blog or podcast in terms of its position, contribution and relation to participatory culture and digital communication.

WORD LIMIT: 1500 Words.
VALUE: 20% of your overall mark for the course.
DUE IN PRINT: Before 5pm, Thursday 15th September, to be submitted with a cover sheet to the English, Communication & Cultural Studies Office.
DUE ONLINE: Before 9am, Friday 16th September, to be posted to the course blog.

(NB: You must submit in both formats for your Critical Evaluation to be marked).

Below are a list of suggested blogs and podcasts you can choose to evaluate. You may choose your own blog or podcast to evaluate if discussed with and cleared by Tama Leaver before Wednesday, 7th September.

Possible Blogs:
[X] Lessig Blog (Lawrence Lessig & Occasional Visitor's Blog): http://www.lessig.org/blog/
[X] New Media Musings (JD Lasica's Blog): http://www.newmediamusings.com/blog/
[X] Creative Commons Blog: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/
[X] Dan Gillmor's Blog: http://bayosphere.com/blog/dangillmor
[X] Darknet Blog: http://www.darknet.com/
[X] Smart Mobs (Howard Rheingold et al's Blog): http://www.smartmobs.com/

Possible Podcasts:
[X] The Daily Source Code (Adam Curry's Podcast): http://www.dailysourcecode.com/
[X] The Gillmor Gang: http://gillmorgang.podshow.com/
[X] The Signal (Serenity Fan Community Podcast): http://signal.serenityfirefly.com/signal.php
[X] The Gadget Show (Richard Giles' Podcast): http://www.thepodcastnetwork.com/gadget/

A Few Hints'n'Tips:
[X] For the larger blogs and podcasts you are not expected to read everything in the blog or listen to all the podcasts. Rather, listen to or read enough to get a good sense of the tone, position and politics of the blog or podcast. Why is it being made? Who's writing/recording it? What is their aim? How does this relate to participatory culture? How is this instance of digital communication both similar to and different to previous media (especially print media or radio)?
[X] Normal citation and plagiarism rules apply. You must cite all sources clearly, not just give URLs. (If citing blogs, be sure to use the specific links to each blog post; the overall link to the blog is not sufficient.) If you are in any way unclear about citation or plagiarism, please see Tama before you submit your assignment!
[X] Remember, this is a scholarly evaluation at Honours Level. Secondary material to support your argument is absolutely necessary.
[X] When posting your Critical Evaluation Exercise to the course blog, please convert footnotes and URLs to live hyperlinks (eg don't just have the text i-generation.blogspot.com, but rather use the link tool in Blogger to make sure it's a clickable link such as http://i-generation.blogspot.com).

IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT THIS ASSIGNMENT

1.Your written work should be submitted to the ECCS Office with a cover-sheet attached. Please do NOT submit written work directly to your tutor. (If you do, there may be no official record that the work was ever submitted.)
2. In order to satisfy course requirements, students must submit work by the due date. Unless an extension of the due date has been granted, late assignments will incur a penalty of 2 marks per working day. (Extension requests should be made in writing to your tutor, and will normally require a medical certificate.) A grade of 'NM' will be recorded if no assignment is submitted. No work will be accepted after the end of the examination period (without a formal deferral from the Academic Student Advisor).
3. It is essential to KEEP A COPY of your work. In the case of loss of an assignment, notes or an earlier draft cannot be accepted as substitutes.
4. Please do NOT write on both sides of the paper.
5. Whether your work is typed or hand-written, it should be DOUBLE-SPACED. (For handwritten work, this means that you write on every second line.)
6. Please leave a WIDE MARGIN in case the marker needs to offer comments and annotations.
7. PLAGIARISM Please be aware that the work you submit must be your own work with no unacknowledged debt to some other writer or source. To pass off written work as your own, whether you have copied it from someone else or from somewhere else (be it a published writer, another person, a TV program, a library anthology, or whatever) is to deprive yourself of the real benefits of this course and to be guilty of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious offence! University policy is that plagiarism, the unacknowledged quotation of material from other people's work, is a ground for failure. Any work that contains ideas or phrases taken from other works without acknowledgement - PLAGIARISM - will be failed, given the grade of 0 and your name placed on the Faculty's Plagiarism Register. This includes direct quotations, when a section of one text is transposed into another without any changes, and indirect paraphrasing, when the main ideas and arguments of someone else's work are used. If you take notes from other sources (critical articles, background works, etc) you must quote carefully and accurately, and acknowledge the quotation. Even if you paraphrase, you must still acknowledge that you are paraphrasing. This is very important!

'No silicon heaven? But where do all the calculators go?'

2005-08-10T16:18:00.000+08:00

Hey there, here is my review of the citizen journalism seminar. Sorry if it appears in a strange place in the/(on the?) blog, I always start writing it at work on wednesday afternoon and don't finish it til later!

Once again the power of bloggers and other netusers was brought home to me (see, I am learning!) in Tama's tale of the American politician. 'Big media' reported the racist comment the politician made but bloggers took it and made it an issue that demanded more than the casual attention it was originally given. By generating the kind of heated online discussion that it did, the issue was thrust back into the 'big media' spotlight. It was a cycle where 'big media' broke the news and commented on its' racism but it was bloggers who increased the event's significance. This shift in emphasis meant that the politician's actions were re-examined, brought to the attention of a wider audience and he was held accountable for his actions.

The other thing that struck me about today's seminar was the way the information produced by citizen journalists and professionals could be used by historians (sorry, it was one of my majors!) as a well preserved and massive set of primary and secondary resources documenting the contrasting experiences of different events. Although this seems ridiculously obvious, it just really struck me that citizen journalism, with its' often unabashed subjectivity and emphasis on personal experience, really seemed to mirror the primary resources that social historians use, such as letters or diaries. Professional journalism in contrast, also functions as being a product of the context within which it was produced and having the same prejudices, values etc. but it is more bound up with the struggle for objectivity and ethical reporting. I guess what I'm trying to say in this meandering little tangent is that we can view 'big media' (with appropriate suspicion) as being like the source of information that attempts to act as a factual touchstone for a wide audience or at least a point of access for finding the dominant (but by no means the only or most appropriate) interpretation of a world event etc. Prof. journalism attempts to provide a framework through which to understand something, while online citizen journalism seems to express those understandings, sometimes challenging or dismissing the big media framework. This is a ridiculously meandering thing, i probably could have said all of that in one sentence and I'm sorry you had to read all that drivel.

I thought today's discussion was a really interesting/scary/hopeful reflection on what happens to our contributions once we put them out there into blogs, live journals or web pages etc. As the web appears to be this great, infinite realm it's scary to imagine that any scrap of information that we dare to throw out there could come back to haunt or discredit us.

Also, the title of this blog entry is a quote from one of my favourite TV shows. It is a British sci-fi comedy. If anyone can tell me the name of the show I'll give them a chocolate frog. I thought it (okay, okay rather tenuously) tied in with our discussion about where all the shreds of ourselves go once we put them out into/(onto?) the web....

The ebay song

2005-08-10T11:33:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone,

just a little present from me to you... check this out

http://www.imagestorepro.com/ebay_song.html

Not sure what the copywrite army thinks of this... but I reckon it's great.

Week 5 Seminar: The Politics of Play

2005-08-10T09:49:00.000+08:00

Greetings.

The ever increasing popularity of gaming has become a mainstream market and a driving force in the entertainment industry. In this week's seminar, we are looking at the political messages that are embedded in today’s games; and what implications and influences do they bring onto the gamers. Of course such issues are not new; in fact existed since the dawn of gaming. However with the dramatic improvement in technology resulting in improved realisms and storylines, such political messages become even more transparent and evident.

The readings required for this seminar are as below:

[X] McClellan Jim, 'videogames with a political message' , Hydrapoetics, 13, 5, 2004 [If this page doesn't display properly in Firefox, Mozilla or Safari, try using Internet Explorer.)

[X] Kennedy.W Helen, 'Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo?', Game Studies, vol.2, issue.2, December 2002

[X] 'Chasing The Dream', Economist.com, 4, 8, 2005

[X] Castronova Edward, 'On Virtual Economies', Game Studies, vol.3, issue.2, December 2003

Here are examples of some flash political games that you might like to try out ;)

As you do the readings, it will be helpful to consider some of these questions (that we can discuss about in the seminar)

[X] How different and the extents of the impacts of gaming on political messages compared to other forms such as radio and television?

[X] Are games built on the foundation of the real world (such as gender, economy) or rather 'the other way around'? If so, why?

[X] What are the potentials (be it good or bad) of gaming in propagating political messages in the near future?

Week 4 Seminar: Citizen Journalism

2005-08-04T15:22:00.000+08:00

This week's texts (in the broadest sense of the word) are:

[X] Dan Gilmor, 'Introduction', 'From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond', 'The Read-Write Web', 'The Empires Strike Back' and 'Making Our Own News' from We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Sebastopol: O'Reilly Media, 2004, pp. ix-xviii, 1-43 & 209-246.

[X] From my blog Ponderance, 'The Mediascape & The London Bombings' (try and read most of the articles linked to in the post, but don't worry too much about looking at the Wikipedia and WikiNews since we'll return to those in a couple of weeks).

[X] John Hockenberry, 'The Blogs of War', Wired, 13, 8, August 2005.

[X] Watch the 8 minute Flash presentation EPIC 2014 which traces participatory media history from the past all the way to a possible 2014.

This week we're looking more closely at the growing phenomenon of citizen journalism, which basically is built on the idea that blogs, wikis and other tools of the digital age allows anyone to participate in the creation of media and, more specifically, journalism. Of course, the claim that anyone with a blog can become a citizen journalist is fraught with trouble since journalists are bound by years of training and codes of ethics while a non-professional reporter would have none of these restrictions. Nevertheless, the cynicism about the accuracy and balance of 'big media' has led to a lot of disillusionment with the mainstream newsmedia, and opened the door for citizen journalism as an important facet of participatory culture. Dan Gilmor actually comes from a professional journalistic background, but is one of the loudest and clearest proponents of citizen journalism, and his book which you're reading sections from is one of the clearest manifestos for this new style of participatory media. While there have been a number of flashpoints where the impact of citizen journalism has been evident, the recent London Bombings illustrated the impact of everyday citizens reporting their news when everyone from personal blogs to the BBC was carrying news and video footage from Londoners who shot pictures with mobile phones and blogged their experiences within minutes of the explosions. The post from my blog lists some of the more interesting reporting (and reactions to it) surrounding the London explosions, so please read as many of the linked articles as possible (they're all pretty short!). John Hockenberry's article looks at the way bloggers in the Iraq military are changing the way the media reporting occurs from within the military. Finally, the flash presentation EPIC 2014 traces a line from current trends in participatory media looking to the future and some of the problems that may occur if citizen media is accepted without a lot of thought being put into its place in our mediascape.

A few questions to start thinking about as you're reading:
[1] What impact has citizen journalism had thus far? Does that influence look likely to expand or decrease in the future?
[2] What reasons have led to the rise of citizen journalism (yes, the increase in technological ease is one, but look for others, too)?
[3] How worried should we be about journalistic style reporting coming from non-professionals? Are there ethical worries or issues about accuracy and accountability? How reliable to you find citizen journalism?

It's someones Birthday!

2005-08-04T12:49:00.000+08:00

Admittedly, this is unrelated to any official academic use of this blog, but in the aim of trying to create a SENSE OF VIRTUAL COMMUNITY on here, lets all wish

LIZ

A Happy Birthday! :)

PS and yes, my official educational post will be up soon.
Cheers All
-Hilary

Some interesting things in terms of copyright...

2005-08-02T22:28:00.000+08:00

Tama, I couldn't help but notice two posts on your blog that have direct relation to the topics we shall be discussing tomorrow in our seminar about copyright, creativity, fair use etc.

Your RIAA vs Machinima post and your post on File Sharer's buying more music online highlight some of the important points Lessig made throughout his articles and lectures.
Especially the distinction he makes between the different types of 'so called pirates' and questioning the real damage done to the recording industry, the figure he quoted was something to do with 5% that couldn't even be directly contributed to file sharing.

The RIAA vs Machinima definately highlights the notion of the difference between protecting the artists copyright and intellectual property, and simply destroying people's right to fair use!

Anyway, maybe we could bring these two posts up as possible recent events for discussion over some of the material we have read?
Cheers
Hilary

week 2 stuff

2005-07-29T15:59:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone,

After thinking about it, I'm not convinced as to the distinction made by Henry Jenkins between jammers and fans. He claims the diference lies in the intent; the former is motivated to resist and challenge the status quo, while the latter is motivated more by a love of the material they address.

However, the effects of both jamming and fan culture are similar in some ways. Both can actively disrupt the commercial machine. A clear example of fans challenging existing material is the Star Wars fan who, while motivated by love, still felt dissatisfied enough with the creation of The Phantom Menace to create the Phantom Edit.

I would argue that this tampering and changing of existing material is a mutual focus of jammers and fans. Both make use of existing cultural products to create new formations in accord with their own individual visions.

I would also argue that those who choose not to alter existing material should not be put under the "couch potato" label. Just because an individual is not physically altering or subverting material in a way which is obvious to others does not mean they are not actively engaging with the material.

It seems quite patronizing to assume that people who are not physically engaged with technology are simply faithfully absorbing any information provided without a critical thought floating through their minds. I have many a critical thought as I sit watching big brother... just because I don't create a big brother parody using taped footage spliced with animal kingdom clips doesn't mean I haven't thought of it. The fact that I could seems to be the point... because I choose not to doesn't necessarily make me a passive sponge. Perhaps it just makes me lazy...

Anyway, that's my little rant...

oops, just saw Hilary's comments down there, now I don't know where mine should go... Aaargg! Sorry, haven't addressed your points at all Hilary, but I'll just say Bravo!

Copyright... Into the breach.

2005-07-29T15:57:00.000+08:00

I thought the first seminar on participatory culture provided a new insight into the way the expanding scope of copyright law could be perceived as a threat to grass-roots cultural production. Lasica's 'Darknet' is an effective, and enjoyably dramatic, exploration of how 'big-business' studios etc. seek to protect their interests often at the expense of interactive, cultural productivity among those who consume and love their work. With the Indiana Jones example, I thought Lasica made quite a strong argument about the way control and ownership of modern cultural works belong more and more to the administrators of that work (ie. publishers, studio executives and those who package and publicise it) than those who actually create the original ideas or execute their interpretation on screen. Although director Spielberg supported and loved Strompolos and Zala's tribute to his direction of Indiana Jones, he did not (as one person within a collaboration being funded and owned by Lucasfilm) have the right to advocate it being shown. Thus this film, which Harry Knowles, creator of 'Ain't It Cool news,' has called "the best damn fan film I've ever seen... This is the dream of what films can do. Motivate kids to learn and make it" will NEVER be seen by an audience LEGALLY! It seems like such a tragedy!
During the seminar I grappled with the reality that whenever creative authorship and ownership are talked about in relation to digital culture and the web, it is impossible to draw a line in the sand (get it-sand? Sorting through web is like searching through grains of sand?! mwa ha ha!) that can objectively (impossible!) distinguish between the unacceptable stealing of , and the acceptable borrowing of, ideas.
BUT! I think Lasica's most powerful statement about finding this middleground is in the way the work 'Darknet' was published partly on net and also in book form. This way, Lasica walks the talk and gives net-users free access to his ideas ON THE SUBJECT OF free access to ideas, and also has a publisher to spread the word about the work and to allow him to keep writing by financially supporting his output. In this instance, Lasica is able to allow for the free consumption of his ideas, while still operating within the administrative institutions that allow for these ideas to be known publicly in the first place.

Week 3 Seminar: Copyright, Creativity & The Creative Commons

2005-07-27T12:30:00.000+08:00

This week please read these items:

[X] Lawrence Lessig, “Preface”, Introduction”, “Piracy”, “Conclusion” and “Afterward” from Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. New York: Penguin Press, 2004, pp. xiii-xvi, 1-79, & 257-306. (More details.)

[X] Sam Howard-Spink, "Grey Tuesday, Online Cultural Activism and the Mash-up of Music and Politics." First Monday 9.10 (2004), http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_10/howard/.

And listen to one of these presentations (or both if you have time):

[X] Lawrence Lessig, ‘Free Culture Presentation’, 2002, 9Mb Flash File. (More details.)

OR
[X] Lawrence Lessig, et al, “Who Owns Culture?” 2004, 45Mb Mp3 File.

(If you don’t have the bandwidth to download these files, let me know ASAP and we can arrange to get you a copy on CD.)

Last week Henry Jenkins and J.D. Lasica gave us some grounding in the way that cultural interaction and production have changed in recent years, especially in the context of digital media. Building upon these ideas, this week we’re turning to the work of Lawrence Lessig who has been called, among many other things, the Elvis of cyberspace law! Lessig is a passionate crusader for a legal system which reinforces and encourages creativity, rather than locking creativity down (which is what the MPAA [Motion Picture Association of America] and RIAA [Recording Industry of America Association] and their anti-piracy rhetoric platform are doing in Lessig’s view). In the excerpts from Free Culture that you’re reading, pay particular attention to the way culture has changed in terms of ownership and in terms of what that entails for creativity and cultural production. I’d encourage you to also explore the websites of the Creative Commons organisation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Lawrence Lessig’s own website. Lessig's book is a great read, so if you have time you may want to dip into some of the other chapters, too.

You’re also reading an article by Sam Howard-Spink which explores the cultural reaction to ‘The Grey Album’, and the reaction when copyright holders tried to remove the album from circulation.

When reading, keep these questions in mind:
[X] How does the rhetoric of ‘piracy’ work in the debate(s) surrounding cultural production and creativity?
[X] What is the history of cultural ownership and copyright?
[X] How have large corporations and copyright holders reacted to new media forms and new media technologies in the past few decades?
[X] What does ‘Grey Tuesday’ tell you about the way individuals react to the current copyright system?

Communal Authorship

2005-07-21T16:43:00.000+08:00

Hey guys, I just found this amusing and relevant so I thought I would post it up :)
Don't you just love Dilbert?!

G'Day!

2005-07-20T20:57:00.000+08:00

Just checking in, had to log in from home as I couldn't remember my old password for the arts lab...

Hello!

2005-07-20T19:34:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone! This is Kaori:) This will be my first time to write a blog...I'm very excited to join this group! Oh well...that's it for now!

signed on

2005-07-20T17:59:00.000+08:00

Hi there, this is just a note to confirm that I've made contact with the comm blog.

Hello-Intro Post

2005-07-20T16:16:00.000+08:00

Well, hello everyone!
Its Hilary...oh look a specky blog!
Well, I am a little bit of a nerd, but mostly a normal person, so I shall put up some links...some entertaining...others relevant to this unit!
Please ignore any grammatical mistakes in this first post, as I will get better...and I just got a specky new keyboard especially for uni!! So of course, many a typo :P
Here's some links:

Homestarrunner and Strongbad (ohhh Flash fun!!)
Technorati (edumacational)
Waxy.org Links (edumacational and also fun)
Photobucket hosting (in case you want to post a picture on the net somewhere, use this it makes it easy!)
Milk and Cookies (mostly fun, but you might find some interesting related stuff I guess)

Enjoy and see you all next week! :)

Week 2 Seminar: Participatory Culture 101

2005-07-20T15:30:00.000+08:00

Your core readings for this seminar are:

[X] Anita Blanchard, "Blogs as Virtual Communities: Identifying a Sense of Community in the Julie/Julia Project." Into the Blogosphere. Ed. Smiljana Antonijevic, Laura Gurak, Laurie Johnson, Clancy Ratliff, and Jessica Reyman, 2004, http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogs_as_virtual.html, accessed 14 November 2004.

[X] Henry Jenkins, "Interactive Audiences?: The 'Collective Intelligence' of Media Fans" in Dan Harries (ed.), The New Media Book, (London: British Film Institute, 2002), pp. 157-170.

[X] J.D. Lasica, "Darknet mini-book: Introduction", "'Darknet' foreword" (by Howard Rhinegold), and "The teenage filmmakers" in Darknet: Hollywood's War against the Digital Generation. John Wiley & Sons, 2005.

The article by Henry Jenkins looks at interactivity and audience agency, giving a sense of where culture has been in terms of participation and ownership, and then looks to how culture is shifting facilitated, in part, by digital communication. Anita Blanchard's piece takes a more focused (and more sociological) look at a specfic blog and explores how a community can (or can't) emerge from their engagement around one blog. Finally, the excerpts from J.D. Lasica's Darknet look at what immediate changes and battles are happening in the Western cultural context due to immediate challenges made by digital communication and interaction tools.

While this seminar is meant as a general overview, you might want to keep these questions in mind when doing you reading:
[1] Is participatory culture a brand new idea, or does is have historical precedents?
[2] How are the terms 'ownership', 'community' and 'culture' actually used in these readings (and are these stable terms, or do they mean something different for each author)?
[3] How open and accessible is cultural production in the twenty-first century? What are the trends, and where do you think things are headed?

Joining the Course Blog & Your First Blog Post

2005-07-19T19:14:00.000+08:00

At some point fairly soon after our first meeting you will receive an email inviting you to join the course blog which will look something like this:
[Click on this or any other image to enlarge it.]
Follow the hyperlink in the invitation email and you'll see a screen asking you to join the blog which will appear thus:
If you have used the Blogger system before (and you're happy to use the same username you've used before) enter your username and password. If you've not used Blogger before, or prefer to set up a new user profile, then click the blue "Create an Account" button and create your account on a screen that looks like this:
Please make sure your Display Name is clearly and easily identifiable as you (your first name would be ideal).

Once you've created an account, or logged in with your previous Blogger username, you will have become a member of the blog and can now post. You'll see this screen:
Just click on the green button to write a new post and you'll meet this Dashboard screen:
This is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor for creating your blog posts. To test out your newfound blogging ability please make your very first post in the course blog. In your first post, I suggest you tell use something about yourself and your experience(s) online, and what you hope to get out of this course. (Also, please keep in mind that this blog is online and thus can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection. It's probably not a good idea to give out any easily traceable personal information such as your surname, telephone number, student number, home address or anything else you don't want other people to be aware of!)

In the future whenever you want to log onto the course blog and make posts, just go to Blogger.com and log in with your username and password in the box at the top of the screen and you will automatically be taken to the Dashboard screen and can make your posts.

In addition to making posts, please remember you can make comments using the "comments" button (oddly enough) which is at the end of every post.

Finally, please write down your Blogger password and username in a safe place! I cannot retrieve your password for you if it's lost, so please don't forget your username or password!

Welcome to iGeneration: Digital Communication & Participatory Culture

2005-07-19T19:13:00.000+08:00

Semester 2, 2005

Course Coordinator: Tama Leaver
B.A.(Communication Studies) Coordinator: Ian Saunders

Seminars: 1pm Wednesdays, Arts Building Room 1.38
Tama's Consultation Time: 12-1, Wednesdays, Arts Building Room 1.38
Course Blog: http://i-generation.blogspot.com

Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
The University of Western Australia

INTRODUCTION

In the past fifteen years the rapid increase in widely accessible hardware, software and digital communication (epitomised by, but not limited to, the internet) has led to substantial changes in the way cultural meaning and media are conceived, created, produced and distributed. One of the most significant and widely discussed changes has not just been the way digital media is produced, but who has access to the tools of creation. While the day to day ability to offer news, cultural criticism and political commentary used to be the almost exclusive realm of professional journalists, personal publishing tools such as weblogs have opened the door for millions of 'amateur' writers to share their voices and opinions. While the production of broadcast quality audio or video was once the exclusive realm of production companies with huge budgets, the expansion of digital technologies and their relative affordability has opened the door for non-professionals to create films and music which are of a comparable standard to those produced by their industry counterparts. As such, the twentieth century may be characterised by the expansion and domination of 'big media', but by contrast the twenty-first century is being hailed by many commentators as the digitally-facilitated era of participatory culture. According to enthusiasts, digital technology and communication are allowing cultural production to once enter the hands of average individuals as part of their everyday lives.

However, as more and more people participate in the creation, manipulation and distribution of new media forms and cultural production, a range of serious issues have emerged. The most public battles have been fought over the right to distribute, copy and remix digital music in the face of mp3 audio compression. Less public but equally intense debates have emerged regarding the realm of journalism and authority. If anyone can create a weblog (or blog), what authority should blogs have when compared to traditional print or television news? What responsibility do bloggers have to their (potential) readership? What credibility does a communally authored online encyclopaedia have? As these few questions begin to show, the emerging trends and rhetoric surrounding the ideas and practice of participatory culture have opened new realms of debate, as well as re-igniting existing arguments. In this unit, you will critically explore these emerging debates, utilising communications theory, exploring social and cultural trends in digital culture, and evaluating the ideas and practice of participatory culture. In order to fully analyse the specificities of some of these new media forms, your assessment with include the participation in a group blog, and the production of a researched podcast (a syndicated audio documentary, the form of which is named after the popular iPod digital audio device).

AIMS

This unit aims to expand and develop your critical understanding of current social and cultural trends in the production, development, use, distribution and influence of new media forms. It is expected that you will build upon the communications theory examined in past units and broaden those perspectives in relation to the ideas and practice of participatory culture. Further, students are expected to enhance their practical skills in digital media by participating in collective authorship of participatory media forms (most notably through the unit weblogs) and individual authorship (most notably through the production of a podcast).

The unit is designed to enhance your existing skills in research, textual analysis, collaborative learning and digital media production.

OUTCOMES

At the successful completion of "iGeneration: Digital Communication and Participatory Culture", students will be able to:

[X] Identify and critically analyse key issues and debates emerging from recent social and cultural trends in the digital communication and interactive media
[X] Demonstrate a practical knowledge of participatory cultural forms
[X] Identify and evaluate the requirements of digital audio recording, editing and distribution
[X] Plan, produce and create a podcast
[X] Research a topic by collecting, analysing and interpreting data.
[X] Formulate, express and defend an argument.
[X] Express research findings and ideas coherently and logically in oral, textual and recorded digital formats.
[X] Engage in constructive and critical dialogue (in oral and electronically mediated forms) with peers and other course participants.

ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE

The major assessment components for the course are:

[X] 20% for a critical evaluation of one blog or podcast series (the specific blog or podcast you wish to critique MUST be negotiated with Tama at least a week prior to the due date). The critical evaluation is due in print to be handed in at the English Office before 5pm, Thursday 15th September. Your critical evaluation must also be posted online to the course blog before 9am, Friday 16th September.
[X] 30% for continual participation in the seminars and unit weblog including three main elements:
[1] A detailed presentation on one seminar topic (including notes posted to the course blog beforehand, and chairing the your chosen seminar). [10%]
[2] Ongoing critical participation in the course blog (including a summary comment posted after each seminar) and active participation in the seminar discussion. [10%]
[3] A critical reflection on one of your peer's first critical evaluation exercise. The critical reflection should be roughly 500 words, be posted as a comment on the blog post of your peer's critical evaluation, and must be posted before 5pm, Friday September 30th . [10%]
[X] 50% for a major research podcast. The podcast must be completed and submitted online (details on how will be provided) before 5pm, Thursday 27th October.

SEMINAR SCHEDULE

Week 1 [20th July] Introductions: A New Course, New People and New Ideas
Week 2 [27th July] Participatory Culture 101
Week 3 [3rd August] Copyright, Creativity & The Creative Commons
Week 4 [10th August] Citizen Journalism
Week 5 [17th August] The Politics of Play: Politics in/as/about Gaming [Andrew]
Week 6 [24th August] Wikis: The Wikipedia, Collective Intelligence & Communal Authorship [Hilary]
Week 7 [31st August] Machinima: From Game Platforms to Animation Studio [Gwyneth]
Week 8 [7th September] Fan Culture: The Origins of Participatory Culture [Liz]
Week 9 [14th September] Study Week: Complete 1st Assessment (No class)
19th September - 30th September 2 WEEK BREAK
Week 10 [5th October] Research Podcast Workshop + Proposals
Week 11 [12th October] Podcasting: Revolutionising Radio? [Kaori]
Week 12 [19th October] Participatory Culture Then, Now and Tomorrow
Week 13 [26th October] Study Week: Complete Podcast (No class)

[Tags: igeneration | syllabus | outline | overview | schedule | 2005]

iGeneration

All Good Things ...

Tombcast

Simpsons: The iGeneration Podcast

Podcast: Christianity

Rich and the Rural Podcast

Good Lecture

Advent Children

Week 12: Participatory Culture Then, Now and Tomorrow

Week 11 Seminar: Podcasting: Revolutionising Radio?

Major Podcast Assignment

Word 'Blog' is mentioned on Dilbert

Traditional Media vs New Media

Group Outing

Somebody Help Me!

Participatory Culture Eat Your Heart OUT!!!

Noob Alert

A Few Things ...

Critical Evaluation - Darknet

Awesome Audio

Critical Evaluation Exercise

Daily Source Code Evaluation.....

Critical Evaluation Exercise

Critical Evaluation Exercise

iGeneration Prototype "Proof-of-Concept" Podcast

The Trouble With Technology....

Copyright, Intellectual Property, Fair Use etc

I suddenly feel uncomfortable.....

Journalism reaches new peaks

New Orleans: citizen journalism

Week 8: Fan Culture & The Origins of Participatory Culture

Urgent *haha*

Week 7 Seminar: Machinima: From Game Platforms to Animation Studio

In respect to wiki

Week 6 Seminar: Wikis - The Wikipedia, Collective Intelligence and Communal Authorship

Critical Evaluation Exercise

'No silicon heaven? But where do all the calculators go?'

The ebay song

Week 5 Seminar: The Politics of Play

Week 4 Seminar: Citizen Journalism

It's someones Birthday!

Some interesting things in terms of copyright...

week 2 stuff

Copyright... Into the breach.

Week 3 Seminar: Copyright, Creativity & The Creative Commons

Communal Authorship

G'Day!

Hello!

signed on

Hello-Intro Post

Week 2 Seminar: Participatory Culture 101

Joining the Course Blog & Your First Blog Post

Welcome to iGeneration: Digital Communication & Participatory Culture

Urgent haha