WEEK 7's LECTURE

TOPIC: Creative Commons & Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS)

• The internet is used like a giant copy machine as it doesn't care whether the work it is copying has been copyrighted in the past or not.
• Creative Commons is a non-profit organisation; it has a set of licences that they have created for writers to stick to, if you want to put something on the internet and don't want certain parts of it to be copied you must sign up to an agreement with creative commons. To look at more about creative commons their website is located at, http://www.creativecommons.org/.
• Public domain is something which has no rights at all so anybody anywhere in the world can copy/use your work/creativity for their own use.

These are used as a simple way for creators to share their creative work with the world and the style they have, you are left with a choice to share your work or not which is referred to as 'access and control'.

Software has been created by programmers and they never use to charge for the programmes they wrote in the 1960's and 1970's they would just share it among one another because it was not very popular. These days practically every piece of software you must pay for because it has become very popular and large business depend on it to run certain things. These programs are written through source codes which is basically a set of instructions for the computer to follow so that it does what you want it to do.

A gentleman by the name of Richard Stallman started an organisation in 1981 called the Free Software Foundation, its aim was to be able to share certain software with the public free of charge which is where the operating system Linux and GNU came from. He created his own licence for freedom software which consisted of 4 Freedoms, the freedoms are as followed:

• Freedom 0 - The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
• Freedom 1 - The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs.
• Freedom 2 - The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbour.
• Freedom 3 - The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

Freedoms have been put in place so that we are able to use our computer anyways we like, where as open source software has been created to brand it towards businesses.

WEEK 6's LECTURE

TOPIC: Consumption & Production.

CONSUMPTION
Big Screen Media is divided up into three different types of media which consist of; Cinema, Television and Personal Computers.

1. Cinema:
- Was always the preferred way to see media.
- Cinema was always shared between consumers to maximise their profits.
2. Television:
- Was always shared between the home and could be privately consume the media.
3. Personal Computer:
- This was primarily privately consumed but is becoming more shared as technology improves.

Small Screen Media has primarily been mobile media that can be viewed/consumed anywhere. This type of media mainly consisted of; Fixed Media Players, Personal Media Players and Mobile Phones.

1. Fixed Media Players:
- Has been able to be publicly and also privately viewed/consumed, this type of media consists of things like screens in airplanes, screens in the back of car chairs etc.
2. Personal Media Players:
- This is directed to be personally or privately consumed, things such as iPods, MP3 players and portable DVD players are used for this.
3. Mobile Phones:
- This is primarily privately consumed.

Small Screen consumption is becoming more and more popular as it is easier to download content while mobile. This means it doesn't matter where in the world you are you can still download the content you want to watch/listen to while on the move. Topics such as News and Sports have been modified/designed so that is easier to access, entertainment such as full length television shows and feature length movies file sizes are still too big to download and the screens are still to small to enjoy to the full extent. Consumers are currently ready to consume these types of entertainment now but the only thing standing in their way are the production costs and the time it takes to make them, the other problem is that nobody has been able to produce short 2-3 minute entertainment.

PRODUCTION
Consumers have come to the realisation to produce their own projects because they have taken a great interest in that area, this has brought about fans who are not happy with an ending or particular part to certain films/tv shows and made 'fan edits' some of these peoples work are located at www.fanfilms.net. They sometimes take the extra features from the DVD's and use them to make their fanfilm to something that appeals to them more. Sometimes consumers will do something called a 'mashup' which takes parts from a certain movie and create a trailer that describes something completely to what the movie actually is. This is CONSUMERS becoming PRODUCERS!

MOBILE PRODUCTION
Large production companies have come to using consumers videos on their programs because they are their when the news story is happening and can not get their news team out their in time. CNNI Reports is a website where consumers upload the videos they have shot from their mobile phones and are sometimes made into a news story depending on the relevance.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN IM & 3D WORLDS.

Below I will explain in dot point the differences between both instant messages and three dimensional worlds, some of the things between the both are similar and other things are completely different.

• Most 3D worlds are not free of charge and you've got to sign up and pay a fee to be able to use their services; this is usually because they have special 'cyber events' where you can join in and participate in a real world kind of way, you can also design and personalise certain things like your avatar and purchase your own area that you can specialize to the way you want it, their are also heaps of different worlds that you can go to on the one site so that you can change the scenery that surrounds you. Instant Messenger programs usually do not have any of these features so are free of charge for the consumer to download, they do have avatars but you usually upload them from your personal computer.
• 3D worlds usually have a code of conduct that the users have to agree and obey by because they don't know the people they are communicating with online and some of those people may be offended by the content they display... Instant messenger programs usually don't have any of these rules as you usually know the person you are talking to before you add them to your account so know what may offend them or not.
• Businesses are able to advertise and sell products through 3D worlds where as they can usually only advertise through banners on other instant messenger programs.
• On IM programs you are able to appear offline at times when you don't want others to see you, you can still communicate with people you want to but others don't know you are doing this. On 3D worlds you sign in and then you are online if you want to appear offline you have to sign out completely so can not see who else is online and what is going on.
• Their is a different type of socializing that goes on with 3D worlds because you usually don't know the person so the basic get to know; who, what, where questions happen before you start to ask about life questions where as you know the people on IM because you have added them in the past and they are usually good friends so you ask them more personal/real life questions to basically socialize like in a real world way.
• The 3D aspect of cyber worlds does make a difference most of the time because it is like playing an online game except you can socialize with other characters, it's sort of like 'The Sims' video game except their is actually somebody else on the receiving end. You can also change things about your own character and change your surroundings.

WEEK 5's LECTURE.

INTERNET STUDIES & NEW MEDIA:

• Technology is the study of techniques and the mechanical studies of the world and how it is used.
• Technology is sometimes known as a medium of communication with medium being referred to as a type of media.
• Technology is used both culturally and socially.
• Virtual communities are formed by groups of people on the internet.
• Virtual Identities can change the way you actually are, you can pretend to be somebody that you are not. This is often referred to as 'Identity Play.'
• The internet use to be something that only nerdy types of people would use so they could talk to people with the same interests as themselves, it didn't matter where in the world they were they could still be friends.
• These days it is mostly used for people that you are already friends with through social groups, this is referred to as 'Ego-Centric Networks.'
• Web 2.0 is mostly used for business purposes in the way that it find where the consumers of their products are on the internet.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WEB 1.0 & 2.0:

• Folksonomy - Refers to tagging things/objects to organise knowledge.
• User Generated Content - Is created by people to put stuff on the internet for others to view that interests themselves and others.
• Open API - Refers to sharing data openly with services and others on the internet

TYPES OF SOCIAL MEDIA:

• Weblogs - Twitter, indenti.ca, jaiku.
• Social Networks - Myspace, facebook, livejournal, friendster, orkut.
• Content Sharing - Youtube, flickr, blip.tv.

Abbreviations used in online chat/networks have been around for a lot longer then the most of us think; some of these abbreviations are, ROFLCOPTER or as most of us know ROFL, LOLSKATES or as most of us use LOL.

A term used between communications professionals is 'Attention Economy' which is known more basically as who wants your eyeballs and what they want you to look at and do, this would more commonly be used between marketing professionals as it's sometimes their job to find out what peoples wants and needs are.

WEEK 4's LECTURE.

• Nobody had ever seen moving images up until the 1800's.
• The first films went for 20 minutes or shorter and were just recordings of everyday activities.
• They would take the same film from place to place and charge people to view the film, they would make a lot of money from doing this.
• The first feature length film was made by Australians about "Edward 'Ned' Kelly and the Kelly Gang" then the UK, Europe and United States followed.
• It took an extremely long time to make films and the cost to make one was horrendous.
• Nickelodeons were the first place to show a feature length film and got the name from charging people a nickel to see it, this was first created in America.
• Title cards were used in the films because their was nothing to project sounds from, a person would change the cue cards when needed.
• Blockbuster films were shown in multiple theaters.
• In 1939 the first television was created and shown in New York, they didn't think that 'TV' would effect the amount of people to visit movie theaters due to the high price of 'TV's.
• Their was a huge number of drop off in the amount of people going to see films due to the invention of the 'TV'.
• In 1996 youtube was first created and was a huge hit.
• Videos were difficult to view online due to the slow internet speed and the video was the size of a postage stamp and extremely pixelated.
• Album sales have dramatically fallen due to consumers downloading their songs from the internet.

I have embeded the two videos we were shown during the lecture below:

This is just a video on the internet that I find amusing to watch at times. I discovered it a few years ago and thought I would share it with those who have not seen it before. It's set back in the 1950's and was an experiment for chemical warfare to spray their enemies with d-lysergic acid diethylamide, (more commonly known as LSD), you could see it would of been of some use to disable the opponent...

WEEK 3's LECTURE:

In this lecture we talked about cinema film, I'm just going to dot point some of the notes I took down during the lecture.

• Cinema/TV is a way of representing the images on film.
• It is the 'Language of the film.'
• Putting shots together is like putting a sentence together.
• Communicated through; who, what, when, where, why and how.

WHO:

• Why using particular shot.
• Closeup used to find out who the character is.
• Used for non verbal communication.
• Used to recognise character and emotion.

WHAT:

• Answered by a mid shot.
• Showing the action used.

WHERE:

• Where/area the shots are taken.
• Shots are taken wider out and then moving on closer.

WHEN:

• Answer a whole lot of different times.
• What period in time the shots are set.
• Can be used in a long shot to show time or period.
• When time is passing, (not used in actual time).

WHY:

• What are the motives behind the characters actions.
• Used between flashbacks.

HOW:

• Usually communicated through a performance of actions.

Film was derived from earlier visual art in shot sizes which I will explain below:

• Head Room - Used to determine characters size, position and visual image.
• Talking Room - Used so that it looks like they are with somebody else not just talking to a 'brick wall'.
• 180 Degree Rule - Used to put the cameras on the same side so that the view is the same.

Personal Communication Experiences

The only personal communication technology I've used in the past has been social networking sites. I created a myspace profile st the end of 2006/beginning of 2007; I got bored with that pretty quickly and stopped using it until facebook was created, I held off creating a profile on their for a while until a few mates had made one and sussed out how to navigate through it.

On each of these social networks I set it up for privacy so that people I didn't know couldn't see my personal details. I only ever added people I had met/was friends with or my family, it was good for when you found friends from primary school that you were good mates with but had lost touch with over time. I would never make friends through the internet because you never know if the person on the other end is telling the truth about themselves or not.

One thing I really like about facebook though if that it has online games on their and you can play with your friends; such as poker, it saves time by not having to wait for everybody to come around and set up the poker gear, it is ready for you when you sign in online.