I would like to argue that Wikipedia can be found more reliable than an ordinary encyclopedia in book form (or other encyclopedias online which are not "wikis"). Wikipedia is not only easier to update it also has the advantage of being written by a number of different people from all around the world which makes it a result of a cross culture collaboration. Even though Wikipedia is an easy target for vandalism and though it might contain some incorrect, misleading or even false information, some members are "working" on the site and regularly go through new additions to the articles. This helps the site maintaining their position as a serious website.
The term ‘wiki’ is now a recognized English word meaning a website in which visitors are allowed to add, remove, edit and change the content without the need of registration. I believe that this only further enhance the notion that these kinds of collaborative sources of information are desirable. When readers/users/visitors are able to add content themselves the information is more up-to-date than in book versions or in other online versions in which the new information has to go through a lot of steps before it is accepted as "fact". In my opinion, what is more "real" than information from the people using the term in everyday life? Why do "old and intelligent men in suits" have to acknowledge something as “fact” before the rest of us are allowed to take part of it as information?
I looked at the term moiré (which is a term used within graphic production) at Encyclopaedia Britannica (www.britannica.com) and Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org). Since I did not sign up for the free trial on Encyclopaedia Britannica I did not get their entire article on moiré. However, it said that the text I saw was 75 out of 212 words. Meaning the article was not that big. When I realized that one had to be a member to be able to see the entire article on Britannica.com the site immediately felt less appealing. The article on Wikipedia on the other hand had several different categories within the article. The content was divided into clear subcategories which made it easy to scan through the article and be able to find the information you were searching for. The article on Britannica.com contained one thing though which Wikipedia did not. It had an animated picture illustrating how moiré occurs. Then again, they only had one picture which might not be that good of an explanation when you are trying to clarify a problem which is best illustrated with pictures and not with words. Wikipedia had a vast amount of pictures working as examples. One good thing was that they had a picture of an original image and then they had that same picture but with a moiré pattern as well.
In this specific case I have to say that Wikipedia exceeded Britannica.com. It had a longer and more accessible text and the fact that Wikipedia had their text divided into smaller paragraphs is especially valuable if you are searching for a particular piece of information. Wikipedia also had more and better illustrations which in this particular case was crucial for being able to fully understand the term.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Wikipedia vs Encyclopaedia Britannica
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Digital Art & Literature
Whitney Artport:
Whitney Artport is an online gallery which is part of the Whitney Museum. What they tell us on their "about"-page is that they use the site to promote artists within the field of net art and digital art. For example, they chose one artist per month who gets to show his/hers most important works and projects.
Rhizome.org
Rhizome.org is an online community for new media artist. They help new and upcoming artists to spread their art. The "General information" goes through what rhizome.org is, how it has evolved, how it works and how you can be a part of their site. Rhizome.org also has a daily newsletter and an online "paper" published a couple of times a week. The site also includes online exhibitions.
Wikipedia definitions:
Digital Art is simply described as art being produced on a computer. However, it does not have to be completely computer-generated since a scanned photograph can be seen as digital art as well. In the definition it is also said that digital art is not yet accepted as a serious art form since one may say that "the computer does it for you".
Internet Art, or net.art, is an art form which uses Internet as its primary medium. Example of Internet art is e-mail projects and online video or audio works.
New Media Art seems to be the broadest definition of the three since it is said to be "artworks created with new media technologies". These technologies can be everything from computer graphics to biotechnologies.
Ilovebees
Ilovebees was an ARG (Alternative Reality Game) that was part of a marketing campaign for a video game. I find it difficult to put it in the category "games" though since it seems to be more of a reality/online collaborate narrative. The participants received clues (in real life) which eventually led them to ilovebees (the Internet).
Implementation
Implementation is a project in which people from all over the world can take parts of an already predetermined story and put these fragments up on public places. I would like to define it as New Media Art since it is not entirely focusing on a medium but rather on how a message can be spread all over the world.
Whitney Artport is an online gallery which is part of the Whitney Museum. What they tell us on their "about"-page is that they use the site to promote artists within the field of net art and digital art. For example, they chose one artist per month who gets to show his/hers most important works and projects.
Rhizome.org
Rhizome.org is an online community for new media artist. They help new and upcoming artists to spread their art. The "General information" goes through what rhizome.org is, how it has evolved, how it works and how you can be a part of their site. Rhizome.org also has a daily newsletter and an online "paper" published a couple of times a week. The site also includes online exhibitions.
Wikipedia definitions:
Digital Art is simply described as art being produced on a computer. However, it does not have to be completely computer-generated since a scanned photograph can be seen as digital art as well. In the definition it is also said that digital art is not yet accepted as a serious art form since one may say that "the computer does it for you".
Internet Art, or net.art, is an art form which uses Internet as its primary medium. Example of Internet art is e-mail projects and online video or audio works.
New Media Art seems to be the broadest definition of the three since it is said to be "artworks created with new media technologies". These technologies can be everything from computer graphics to biotechnologies.
Ilovebees
Ilovebees was an ARG (Alternative Reality Game) that was part of a marketing campaign for a video game. I find it difficult to put it in the category "games" though since it seems to be more of a reality/online collaborate narrative. The participants received clues (in real life) which eventually led them to ilovebees (the Internet).
Implementation
Implementation is a project in which people from all over the world can take parts of an already predetermined story and put these fragments up on public places. I would like to define it as New Media Art since it is not entirely focusing on a medium but rather on how a message can be spread all over the world.
Monday, April 23, 2007
The Matrix / Snow Crash
I hadn't actually seen "The Matrix" before I saw it during this course. I was one of those people who was tired of listening to how great the movie was. And after hearing the entire story/plot of the movie, seeing it just seemed uneccessary. I can tell you now it wasn't... I have watched the first half an hour of the movie about five times but now I've finished it and I have to say it was way better than I had expected. Even though it seemed as if I had seen the exact same movie about a hundred times (since every movie nowadays has the same amount of action, special effects and miserable view on the future of mankind) I tried to have in mind that it was released a couple of years ago. I really like the movie since it exaggerated our fear of machines into a story that would be hard to digest but still not that hard to imagine. But even though the movie plays with the notion that we are dependent on the machines I believe that THEY are more dependent than us. They can not survive without humans as an energy source and that is why I see us as more independent. We can still make our own choices in life (at least I got the impression that people in the matrix can) even though they are trapped in a world they can not control.
At first, "Snow Crash" seemed boring and hard to read but after about 100 pages I could not stop reading. I like his explanations of The Metaverse since it just seems to be a more "hardcore" version of how we use the Internet today. I was particulary fond of how he talked about the avatars and that is why I chose to have this as my essay subject.
Even though I see some similiarities between "The Matrix"and "Snow Crash" I think that they are very diverse. In "The Matrix" the matrix is a place in which people are forced to participate (and most of them are not even aware of its existence). In "Snow Crash" on the other hand, the metaverse is a space which people choose to use in order to extend their real life.
And a thing that I can not get out of my mind... Is it a coincidence that "Neo" is an anagram of (The) "One"?
At first, "Snow Crash" seemed boring and hard to read but after about 100 pages I could not stop reading. I like his explanations of The Metaverse since it just seems to be a more "hardcore" version of how we use the Internet today. I was particulary fond of how he talked about the avatars and that is why I chose to have this as my essay subject.
Even though I see some similiarities between "The Matrix"and "Snow Crash" I think that they are very diverse. In "The Matrix" the matrix is a place in which people are forced to participate (and most of them are not even aware of its existence). In "Snow Crash" on the other hand, the metaverse is a space which people choose to use in order to extend their real life.
And a thing that I can not get out of my mind... Is it a coincidence that "Neo" is an anagram of (The) "One"?
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Folksonomies
Truly, I am not that fond of folksonomies at all. Mainly because I do not like having my name, e-mail address and picture on too many sites on the net. Because if I were to create an account on every community where I had an IRL-friend as a member I would not be doing anything else than deleting junk mail, accept/deny friend requests and blocking annoying spammers. The fact that many of the members of these kinds of sites see it as a competition to have as many "friends" as possible feels kind of immature as well. For some it seems as if their friend list represent themselves in some way and that many friends is a sign of high status. For me it just feels extremely superficial. If I become a member of a site I would love to speak to new people whom with I share interests and dreams but I would at least want to get to know the person before we become "friends". This might be a bit harsh, but a community-like folksonomy for me is a site where a self-centered person indirectly begs for attention and compliments and then fulfills other members' needs by posting flattering comments to them.
Nevertheless, I have had an account on MySpace.com for quite some time now. To defend my earlier statement about me not being particularly fond of folksonomies, I scarcely visit it. I decided to join it in the first place due to my dedication to an American band called The Calling. Many of the other fans, as well as the band itself, had a MySpace account and as a way to keep in touch with my new found friends all around the world I became a MySpace member. Almost all of my MySpace-visits have been music related since it is a great place for finding new upcoming artists. I enjoy listening to music by unsigned bands and MySpace gives new artists the chance to reach a larger audience. I like the fact that MySpace uses it popularity for "good purposes" such as giving upcoming artists a chance to distribute their music. To be frank, I have not explored the world of MySpace even though I am a member. My lack of interest in MySpace has to do with the fact that I think it is a great example of a shallow site.
If I were to visit, and become a member of, a folksonomy today I would prefer a site like Flickr where it is what you are good at (in the case of Flickr: photography) that is of interest and not whether or not your friend list is long enough. I am somewhat familiar with sites where it is the visitors that contributes with the content since I am working on Sweden's most visited blog, Tjuvlyssnat (http://www.tjuvlyssnat.se/) right now. Tjuvlyssnat is a site which publishes overheard conversations from all around Sweden. The conversations are being sent in by the readers and then I, and the two other editors, pick out the ones which we find the most amusing and which feels most authentic (since there are a lof of made up stories coming in as well). Even though the conversations are not published by the eavesdropping readers directly the site is still dependent on its visitors and their contributions.
Nevertheless, I have had an account on MySpace.com for quite some time now. To defend my earlier statement about me not being particularly fond of folksonomies, I scarcely visit it. I decided to join it in the first place due to my dedication to an American band called The Calling. Many of the other fans, as well as the band itself, had a MySpace account and as a way to keep in touch with my new found friends all around the world I became a MySpace member. Almost all of my MySpace-visits have been music related since it is a great place for finding new upcoming artists. I enjoy listening to music by unsigned bands and MySpace gives new artists the chance to reach a larger audience. I like the fact that MySpace uses it popularity for "good purposes" such as giving upcoming artists a chance to distribute their music. To be frank, I have not explored the world of MySpace even though I am a member. My lack of interest in MySpace has to do with the fact that I think it is a great example of a shallow site.
If I were to visit, and become a member of, a folksonomy today I would prefer a site like Flickr where it is what you are good at (in the case of Flickr: photography) that is of interest and not whether or not your friend list is long enough. I am somewhat familiar with sites where it is the visitors that contributes with the content since I am working on Sweden's most visited blog, Tjuvlyssnat (http://www.tjuvlyssnat.se/) right now. Tjuvlyssnat is a site which publishes overheard conversations from all around Sweden. The conversations are being sent in by the readers and then I, and the two other editors, pick out the ones which we find the most amusing and which feels most authentic (since there are a lof of made up stories coming in as well). Even though the conversations are not published by the eavesdropping readers directly the site is still dependent on its visitors and their contributions.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Digital Cultures
For me digital cultures are the worlds which we are entering we when do not see ourselves as part of the "real" anymore. It can be either entering a MMORPG, expressing a strong opinion (which you would not dare to convey to anyone "real") in a forum or perhaps typing an intimite blog post (which you cannot understand is being read by "real" people in the "real" world). I think that the expression "digital cultures" is part of an individual choice. It is the places you are in when you no longer see yourself as a part of the world we call reality. I see a digital culture as a powerful but yet extremely insufficient place. In it, people can escape reality and live out their wildest dreams in an environment which has no, or at least very few, cultural boundaries. There are sites where you can say, do and experience everything within the borders of human imagination (or even beyond them). The virtual world has, at the same time, the same amount of prejudices as the real world has. Of course, you can experience things which you would not be able to experience in reality but there will always be judgmental people following you. And even though people are being divided onto sites and into games depending on their interests, fantasies and needs there will always be critique and comments about our choices which is just the kind of things we wanted to escape in the first place. That is why I see the borders between virutal and "real" as kind of blurry. There will always be a part of reality in the virtual world and a part of virtuality in the real world.
I am not an experienced gamer myself but as a sister to a very dedicated playing little brother I was awestruck with how lacking I found the gaming world. A couple of years ago, while still living at home, my brother often wanted me to sit next to him while he played games such as World of Warcraft, Diablo II and so forth. I found it very strange that he wanted a connection to the real world while being inside worlds of supernatural powers, immortality and treasures. Even though he was quite young and even though most people might prefer playing alone I still believe that a strong urge for real life attachment will occur in some way or another. I see people, who claim that they get pretty much every need fulfilled online, as doubtful. However, getting together and playing with or against each other at LANs and so on at least force to some physical connection with other people. Well, maybe it is just me wanting to believe that we need more than ones and zeros to be able to feel complete satisfaction in life…
I am not an experienced gamer myself but as a sister to a very dedicated playing little brother I was awestruck with how lacking I found the gaming world. A couple of years ago, while still living at home, my brother often wanted me to sit next to him while he played games such as World of Warcraft, Diablo II and so forth. I found it very strange that he wanted a connection to the real world while being inside worlds of supernatural powers, immortality and treasures. Even though he was quite young and even though most people might prefer playing alone I still believe that a strong urge for real life attachment will occur in some way or another. I see people, who claim that they get pretty much every need fulfilled online, as doubtful. However, getting together and playing with or against each other at LANs and so on at least force to some physical connection with other people. Well, maybe it is just me wanting to believe that we need more than ones and zeros to be able to feel complete satisfaction in life…
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Third Life?
After some frustrating moments with my Second Life avatar Jelina at the "change your appearance"-corner I gave up... She turned red, she turned blue, her legs looked like snake skin... She became everything except for what I wanted her to be... After trying to change her skin color (since her head and body ended up with different tones) for about half an hour I decided to call it a day and just make a new avatar... I gave my new character the name Jelani Capalini and when I was about to modify her looks I realised that it was my very slow computer (overloaded harddrive?) that had a problem and not Jelina... Well, at least my new character has the appearance of a sane person... so far...
I have to make a correction in my previous post about me not being a "hardcore PC-gamer"... I totally forgot that I actually succeeded to complete Diablo II... But since my harddrive (there it goes again, it is trying to get to me it seems) crashed some months ago (and with that my beloved assassin Eloriel) I repressed that part of my life...
I have to make a correction in my previous post about me not being a "hardcore PC-gamer"... I totally forgot that I actually succeeded to complete Diablo II... But since my harddrive (there it goes again, it is trying to get to me it seems) crashed some months ago (and with that my beloved assassin Eloriel) I repressed that part of my life...
Starting up my Second Life
I have just created my very first Second Life account and at the moment I am on the Orientation Island trying to... hm... orientate myself... My characters name is Jelina Capalini but since I have no clue how to change her appearance (yet) she still looks exactly like the other "City Chic Female" avatars. Due to the fact that I am not a hardcore PC-gamer (except from a small amount of The Sims a couple of years back) navigate my avatar around the screen with the keyboard is extremely difficult... Most of the time I am walking in a zigzag pattern which not only looks quite amusing but is very time consuming aswell... Well, I better get back to Jelina now... I understand she is kinda bored sitting in the car in the "learn how to move around"-section... without moving around at all...
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