Network Society

This is an section from the book 'Communication Power' By the theorist Manual Castells. It explains what a culture is made up of and how these values can be applied to network societies. The 'network society' is not restricted by race or culture and it is a global culture which enables 'communication between different cultures on the basis not on shared values but of the sharing of the value of communication' so social groups in this network are do not all share the same values but communicate in the same way.     

Constructions and Reconstructions of the self in Virtual Reality

 

 

These are extracts from an article by Sherry Turkle in Cyber_Reader.

The article talks about identity's within virtual games. She uses three example of people who played online games and their identity within them. I found it incredibly interesting looking at these three very different people and their use of these online identity's.

The firs person was a girl called Jess who's mother 'denies her existence' so she used the game to work out her own issues about her mother and have the conversations she was never able to have in real life. The second person is a guy who is completely isolated by health. He is more of the stereotypical vision of a game player, someone who gets to live a life the way her would like, complete with virtual girlfriend. And the last a guy who was able to get over emotional issues during collage but stopped gaming when he left and went on to get a good paying job. He says the game 'kept him form having suicidal thoughts.'

 

This article looking at these three people gives an interesting incite to the way that people use online inanity's and virtual self's in these kinds of games and virtual reality's.

Book publishers report record sales

The book's not finished yet

How is the digital revolution affecting the book trade?

If you travel on trains packed with commuters staring at tiny mobile phone screens rather than books, or wander along high streets now devoid of bookshops, you might think it was in a sorry state.

But the Publishers' Association annual statistical digest, published today, seems to paint a different picture.

The industry had a record year for sales, up 4% to £3.3bn. 2012 was the year when the digital revolution really took hold, with sales up 66% to £411m and fiction e-reading growing even faster, up 149%.

As for the physical book, long thought to be under threat from all those Kindles, Kobos and Nooks, reports of its demise may be premature. Sales fell just 1% to £2.9bn, and in some genres, notably children's books, sales actually rose.

The figures also show that the pace at we're switching from physical to digital books varies according to the type of title. Apparently, 26% of fiction sales are digital, whereas for non-fiction books the figure is just 5%, and for children's titles, 3%.

Why? Well perhaps for fiction it is only the words that matter, and they can be rendered as well or better in digital form, whereas for something like a glossy cookery book or an illustrated children's book, the physical object still delivers a much better experience.

Nigella Lawson: withstanding the digital threat?

What does this mean then for the pace of publishing's digital revolution and its impact on readers and authors?

A few weeks ago Michael Serbinis of the e-reader maker Kobo told me he reckoned that 90% of reading would eventually be on digital devices.

“Start Quote

I've got a Google alert and every day it tells me about a new torrenting site offering free copies of my book”

End Quote JoJo Moyes, author

You won't be surprised to hear that Richard Mollet of the Publishers' Association is betting on a lower figure - somewhere between 30% and 50%. But however rapid the shift to e-readers, publishing seems to be weathering digital climate change better than some other media industries.

But what about authors? I was surprised to hear from JoJo Moyes - a bestselling writer of women's fiction - that nearly half of the sales of her latest book were in a digital format. And each digital sale earns her a few pennies more than the royalty she gets from a physical book sale purchase.

Mind you, not all authors are happy - they point to the much lower costs of producing digital books and wonder how publishers still justify taking such a large cut.

The publishers' response is that they have to spend large sums defending authors from the threat of piracy.

My report for the One O'Clock News

Book publishers report record sales

 

JoJo Moyes has some sympathy with that argument: "I've got a Google alert set up and every day it tells me about a new torrenting site offering free copies of my book. I pass them on to my publisher to deal with. "

Still, neither publishers nor authors seem to have seen their incomes damaged significantly by either piracy or the wider digital revolution. Readers, meanwhile, have a wider choice, and perhaps the prospect of lower prices - although many will grumble that e-books should be a whole lot cheaper.

For bookshops the news is not so good. Independent book stores continue to close, as readers turn to online giants like Amazon for both physical and digital books.

That is making our high streets just a little less interesting, so it's a vicious circle where going out and browsing for books or anything else becomes less attractive than sitting at home and shopping online..

But overall, 2012 seemed to show that the British public still loves books in all their variety, and is prepared to pay to enjoy them.

We hear plenty of doom and gloom from the old media industries about the ravages of the digital revolution - but publishing seems determined to look on the bright side


This news report was published today about 30 minuets ago on BBC News . Thought it was interesting in relation to Katy's earlier post about the death of print.

Illegal Portrait Of The Internet

'SOMEONE HACKED ALMOST HALF A MILLION DEVICES AROUND THE WORLD. WHY? THEY WANTED TO SEE WHAT THE INTERNET LOOKED LIKE.'

This is a portrait of internet usage around the world created illegally by a hacker who accessed nearly half a million connected devices, simply by using the 'root' password to the devices which in general we don't change. He used the data of devices which were online to create this infographic map, where red represents peak usage and blue the lowest.

Some people would find it unethical that someone has 'hacked' them however it wasn't to cause any harm and created something really interesting!

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672187/infographic-hackers-create-an-amazing-illegal-portrait-of-the-internet  

Experiment

Ran a little experiment to see how many times I went on social medias in one day. In total, i went on Facebook 21 times, mainly in the evening at home as a distraction.

Marshall McLuhan - The Global Village

(interview starts at 3.00)

This interview is from 1960, Marshall explains about how the role of the book is changing as new electronic media is starting to emerge. He talks about how the world is becoming connected through television and radio and how the world seems 'smaller' because of this. I think it's interesting to look at their predictions and compare it to the vast amount of media and technology we have become reliant on now.

The term global village is defined as: : 'the world viewed as a community in which distance and isolation have been dramatically reduced by electronic media (as television and the Internet) 

(http://www.merriam-webster.com)

could this the the starting point of creating a new identity online?

http://www.fakenamegenerator.com

According to David Phillips its very hard to create a new identity which is probably the opposite of what i thought, Phillips says that the its hard because the real person will start to emerge

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8929854.


skip to then end.

Developing an online identify is something that is created largely through what people wright about themselves. Reading more on identity Sue Barns who I've posted some bits from earlier points out whiles talking about emails, that people develop a certain style through typing.

 

A person defines them self through what they wright, so a person must create a certain style of writing to express themselves. But the written text can lac emotion and things can easily be miss interpreted.

The death of Print?

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/420329/predicting-the-death-of-print/

'That predictions for the “death of print” changed so drastically in the span of just two years tells us something about where we are on the hype and/or adoption curve of e-readers and their ilk. Which is to say: we are coming up on an inflection point, beyond which rates of adoption explode, feedbacks and network effects kick in, and total market penetration becomes inevitable. How long will it be before it becomes unprofitable to continue to operate huge printing plants when a majority of your customers get your product through the Internet, and for whom your distribution costs are essentially zero? We’re about to find out.'

This short article talks about how long print can last against the new digital ways of printing media can last. Today there are app's for everything, including magazines, books, news papers so why would people go out to find these in shops when they can instantly download them from the comfort of their own homes, in some cases for free. These advances in technology will definitely effect designers as more work will have to be produced purely to be viewed in pixels rather than print. 

How important is the Internet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf7ea8qnB5E

Find it hard to believe that more people don't think they could survive without the internet rather than water

Experiment

I'm planning on running a little experiment over the weekend, counting how many times I use social medias and which ones in one day.

How the internet has changed Graphic Design

Technology has had a huge impact on graphic design, designers have had to 'rethink' and 'embrace' new ways of working. The internet has had both positive and negative impacts on Graphic Design. 

Designers showcase their work through websites, blogs, online portfolio's which can be seen by people all over the world, instantly. This has changed the way designers can contact and communicate with clients and, for students today, the most practical way to contact potential employers is initially via email. 

However the internet is open to the good, bad and ugly of design. There are countless websites and portfolio's that offer 'cheap' design where the offer seems too good for clients to turn down. The article below describes design on the internet as being 'a jungle out there.'

'In pre-web days, designers worked on hourly rates (or quoted projects based on the number of hours projected) and while hourly billables are ultimately better for the designer (they get paid for how long they work) and often times the client (they can choose how much time, and effort, goes into the development of their corporate identity) at the end of the day, this isn’t a practical approach to pricing services via the Internet.'

http://www.thelogofactory.com 

Sense of Self

 

 

Whilst looking at cyber cultures one areas that I have found interesting is the idea of identity on the internet. I've been doing some reading on it and I think the beginning section of this article asks and interesting question. It points out that when cyber communities are created they treat the meeting place like a 'public space' yet eliminating the face to face contact. Yet we apparently need this physical contact with people and objects to develop a sense of self. So how can we achieve that on the internet and how do we present ourselves to others on the internet?

Cyberbullying

With the rise of cybercultures and social medias, cyberbullying is becoming more common and a real threat to young people online. Cyberbullying was becoming a real problem at our school just before we left.

I found some really interesting and worrying facts about cyberbullying.

1. Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online. 1 in 4 has had it happen more than once.
2. 70% of students report seeing frequent bullying online.
3. Over 80% of teens use a cell phone regularly, making it the most common medium for cyber bullying.
4. 68% of teens agree that cyber bullying is a serious problem.
5. 81% of young people think bullying online is easier to get away with than bullying in person.
6. 90% of teens who have seen social-media bullying say they have ignored it. 84% have seen others tell cyber bullies to stop.
7. Only 1 in 10 victims will inform a parent or trusted adult of their abuse.
8. Girls are about twice as likely as boys to be victims and perpetrators of cyber bullying.
9. About 58% of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online. More than 4 out 10 say it has happened more than once.
10. About 75% have visited a website bashing another student.
11. Bullying victims are 2 to 9 times more likely to consider committing suicide.  

http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-cyber-bullying

Hacktivist

I've seen a documentary on the hacking group called 'Anonymous,' couldn't find it to post on here! I remember not being able to workout whether I was for what they were doing or against it, either way they are an interesting group who are as a result of cyberculture.

There's an article here which discusses whether Anonymous are taking things too far. http://www.channel4.com/news/anonymous-ethical-hackers-or-cyber-criminals

Cybersubcultures

I wondered if there were any subcultures which were created as a direct response to cyberculture in

'Cyberculture: The Key Concepts by David Bell' 

I found an interesting extract which explains there are two types of cybersubcultures. Firstly groups which use cyberspace and culture to their advantage such for example fan groups or campaigners, where they can use the internet to express their views and create groups.

The other type of cybersubcultures is a 'direct reponse' to cyberculture. These are groups such as hackers who engage in technology to see what they can do and use it 'outside of mainstream' contexts.

Cyberidentities

Little section from 'Cyberstalking' by Paul Bocij, this part explains how we might want to have different identities online for different reasons. I think this is similar to 'in real life' identities where our identities change depending on who we are talking to and how we want to be perceived.  

Richard Kahn and Douglas Kellner, 'Blogs, Wikis and social networking

 

 

 

 

 

This is a section from an article by Richard Kahn and Douglas Kellner titled TechnoploItics and Oppositional Media. These section that these scans are from are titled 'Blogs, Wikis and social networking.'

This section od the article about some of the positive aspects of social networking such as "...creating linkages and testimonials between friends and family members." The article dose go on to mention some of the downsides.

 

Cyberculture and Identity

This section caught my eye in the book 'Critical Cyberculture Studies' by David Silver. It states about how cyberculture can have an effect on identity. Virtually information about cultures and identity can be shared, so we now have access and opportunity to find information which could re-define or influence our identities.