The final post

In my final post I’d like to think about how all of the subjects over the past semester link together rather than just one subject. One of my favorite links is between week 3 (Convergence) and week 4 (Transformation of The News). When you look at the transformation of the news, all that is going on is the idea of news is converging with new technologies to keep it current. Without convergence, the transformation of the news would not have happened.

 

Week 5’s Networked Self also links with week 6’s Privacy and Surveillance. If we weren’t being watched online with surveillance, would we still feel the need to change our sense of self online?  I also feel like week 9’s Meme’s and Remix culture is very relevant to week 5’s Networked self. This is because of the part that Memes in particular have played in people defining themselves online. With the library of Memes (Emoji’s and Gifs also) so large, it is easier to communicate via these mediums, therefore creating your personality online through the mold of these remix cultures. This all the time is effecting your sense of self.

However the links don’t end there. Convergence again has hit remix culture. In fact, remix almost means the same thing as converging! The idea of images, (the basis of memes) was then converged with the idea of text to create memes. Then in turn memes converged with moving picture to create gifs. The same has happened to emoji’s. Even some Emoji’s are now animated. meaning that there is yet more convergence going on there!

All of these ideas link together forming picture of how the internet works. That may sound like a nice sentence to wrap the whole thing up, but there are still a whole load of grey areas that are waiting for us to colour in.

Copyright

The resource I have chosen is NETFLIX. If NETFLIX was under creative commons and you did not need to pay for subscription, it would not exist. This is because the programs that are on there would not be put on their if it was free to access. This would mean for those productions that no one would pay for TV subscriptions or DVDs if it was free online. The NETFLIX subscription however works as you are paying on a monthly basis on the quite, making the user feel like it is free (at least very cheap). This works as it gives NETFLIX a large enough profit to buy the TV shows. This means that virtually all NETFLIX is, is a website that owns the rights to TV shows and sells the platform to people.

This also means that people would be forced to pay for it. Punters always go for the cheapest version. So why would you buy a DVD or pay a subscription if you could watch it for free anyway? If NETFLIX was free to use the TV and Film productions would not only loose money because none of the NETFLIX users are paying to watch their shows, but it would also make people less likely to go and spend money on their product else where.

If TV shows were under very strict copyright control then it would defeat the object of making them, because no one would be able to ever see them. This would rather obviously effect the industry. This therefore reinstates that NETFLIX, SKY, and Amazon Prime’s subscription model is very successful.

Online Visibility

Do I have control over what people see of me online? No

Do I think I have control over what people see of me online? Yes

Broken down pretty simply that is how I see this situation. Where it has been discussed the people ‘kill people based on meta data’, aka, the data and information about us we never see but can be seen by the powers that be is a scary thought.

I can tell myself all I like that there are certain fields of information I have not filled in on Facebook, so no one knows that about me. However this can’t be where it ends. I have never told Facebook I like the motorsport, but some one somewhere knows I do, because I get a million adverts a day about it. Via what you like, click on and do, the information you choose to with hold is eventually drawn out of you.

So do we have any control at all?

Not control, be we have to make a decision. Do we want to let people we don’t even know have access to our information, or is social media that important? In my opinion the only way to have control over your online visibility is to not have a profile online at all. Do you agree? and is it worth being at that much of a disadvantage through not using the internet just to control your own personal information?

 

Flickr

**LINK** https://www.flickr.com/photos/125463799@N02/albums **LINK**

The online community I have chosen is Flickr. I feel that it is a social media site that never gets enough credit. There are several benefits for users. Including having the opportunity to get your photos out there. By adding your photo’s to groups you can really show off your work to people that may be interested in using you as a photographer in the future. It can alo be used to find people that share your similar interests. In real life I know about 4 people that like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but on Flickr, I have started a group which allows people to share that passion via the photos that we have taken, so it helps build friendships and relationships based on common interest too.

Flickr also allows you to sell your photo’s through the site. Without the site, you may never find the person that wants to by your photo, but Flickr makes this possible. It also allows you to upload private photos so you can back up family photo’s from birthdays and Christmas’s for just you to see, and those you choose to share it with. This means that if your computer was to fail on you, all of your photos would be backed up on Flickr. And all this is for free!

The limitations of Flickr are minor but there is a few. There is only 1 TB of storage space allocated to each user, so you may not be able to back absolutely everything up. It is also only videos and images that can be backed up so not absolutely everything, but videos take an age to load, as do pictures if your internet isn’t quite up to scratch. Another draw back is that people could just download your images for free, however this can be prevented via adding a watermark to you pictures.

Audience Partcipation

The audience participation resource I have chosen to look into is ‘British Touring Car Talk’. It is a Facebook based community of over 4,500 people who share a passion for the British Touring Car Championship.

It has main admin’s who have connections with the championship’s drivers who regularly agree times for online Q&A sessions within the comments of an arranged post. This throws open the opportunity to ask questions to the members of the group, meaning that it is entirely down to the users of the page/forum to decide what questions are asked and where the conversation goes.

Some fans also post images to share there experiences of events, which then promote discussion on the page/forum.

It also works as a communications group and a hub of knowledge. Popular questions asked in the forum relate to camping facilities and best places to view at circuits, as well as what time races start. As anyone has the privilege of starting a post or throwing a question to the group it really is truly ran by the people for benefit the people.

All images by me

 

Convergence

An example of convergence for me is Music and Film. Music has always worked in video and really works well to help manipulate a viewer into what the film makers want the viewer to feel. A quick example would be the theme music from JAWS. That sound track has become almost the official sound of danger ever since it first hit our screens back in 1975.

Another example is Disney’s Frozen. The implications of adding the infamous ‘Let it go’ song to that film has boosted it to be one of the most well known films of the modern era, because of the song, not the film. The opportunity to have a whole film’s success based around a sound track also means there is so much room to make money. As well as selling the film, you are also selling the sound track. Both Film and Music also complement each other in terms of Marketing.

Disney pulled a master stroke with High School Musical. Not only bringing in the profits from both the sound track and the film (not to mention the merchandise) they managed to promote it almost entirely from within. Showing the film in their TV channel (converging Film with TV) and promoting the film on their radio stations with the songs (converging Music and Film).  Arguably convergence at it’s best.

 

Online Resources

THE LINK ** The Networked Society Blog ** THE LINK

The Networked Society Blog is my choice as a resource that would help a student in this module for a few reasons. Firstly, it is a very active blog. There is new content uploaded too it on a regular basis (every 5 or so days at least). This means there is no shortage of ideas or content.

Secondly, it is very subject specific. It covers what we are doing in this module. You don’t need to discard a load of the information on the blog to find what you are looking for or is relative for you.

Thirdly, it comes from a larger cooperation. There are lots of ‘sister’ pages to this blog where more information can be found. This also for me makes it a more reliable source than a stand alone blog.

 

History of the Internet

To cut to the chase, the thing I find most surprising about the history of the Internet is the relative lack of age of websites such as Facebook and YouTube. Yes, it is very recent history, but when you think of the Internet now, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Netfilx, Wikipedia, Amazon not forgetting Google, all come straight to mind.

In fact I can barley imagine the Internet without a main search engine like Google. To think that is was just over a decade ago that these services, baring Netflix which began as a postal service in 1997 and Wikipedia in 2001, these services that currently define the Internet were no where to be seen.

Are these going to stay the top dogs? Or will these fade away as the likes of My Space and MSN did? Are the current companies that rule the internet too strong to ever step away from the top, or will new sites knock them off?

To get the ball rolling, I think that these sites/corporations are now more than just websites, and that it will be virtually impossible for them to loose the amount of control they now have over our lives. MySpace was and simply is just a website, but Google is so much more than just a website. How even would it loose it’s control? Let alone Facebook. YouTube and the rest of the website giants.

But on the flip side, would it be realistic to say that there will be no more big websites born before the end of time. Surely not?