Phone Death...

I remember the first phone I had. It had the capabilities to answer phone calls and write text messages and that is about it.. not to mention the fact it weighed about a kilo and had a nice big antenna out the top. Not the flashiest phone I know, however I had to call mum when I was walking home to let her know I was safe and no this was not 20 odd years ago but about 10.

I found it amusing to find a picture of the phone with the caption "Nokia Shit Brick"

When I went into year 7 my phone got promoted to a phone which had monochrome graphics, call and message features, clock and alarm and the best game ever on phones "Snake". In just 2 years the convergence of alarm and games were able to be incorporated into the "Nokia 2100".




Nokia 2100


From there technology seemed to take off as phones were being made with colour screens and cameras and radio and bluetooth and GPS and.. and.. and.. and.. and.. the list goes on... Fast forward to today some 7-8 years later. The convergence of media technology has enabled us to now carry 'smart phones' which have sometimes too much technology for us to handle from GPS to Facetime to Voice Control and HD Video editing...

Seriously, stop and think about all of the information and technology stored in your smartphone in your pocket.. How much of that do you actually use? and how many of you think that you would be able to cope with a Nokia 2100 or a Nokia "Shit brick"? Personally I feel like I could quite happily use a Nokia 2100 or similiar model.. (bricks are just too heavy for my liking). I recently went away with no phone or internet connection and actually felt quite good knowing that I didnt have to check to see if my phone had gone off or check facebook to see what Joe down the street is up to..

The convergence of media technology has allowed for this phenomenal change in the way in which we conduct our daily lives (we are now almost totally consumed by the media). Now we rely on this media convergence and what im interested to know is what happens when we reach "phone death".. I mean the Vinyl Record was replaced by CDs which have been replaced by iPods and Mp3 players. What is going to replace smartphones? Is it that smart phones have replaced the 'traditional phone' or will there be another technology that will replace these already complex smart phones?

Kookaburra sits in the old court room...

Where do we draw the line at copyright? If you are the creator of an idea then YES you should be acknowledged for coming up with the idea, however there are some aspects of copyright that just don't seem 'just'.

What happens when a DJ takes LMFAOs new song adds a few new sound effects to it, speeds it up 10% and publishes it on their new album as 'their' new track. Who owns the copyright to that..? Technically its LMFAOs song as they put the hard work into the creation of the track, melodies, words etc but a slight change in the beat and it no longer belongs to them...

I work as a dance teacher and I know that for my current production we actually had to receive permission from the record companies to use their tracks as we would be 'acting dj' and mixing them, speeding them up as well as adding our own sound effects to the tracks to fit our particular theme and this was all necessary in order for us to avoid being penalised for breaching copyright laws.
I understand copyright but just don't see how DJs don't get into trouble for copyright breaching when we had to ask for permission to use the tracks to do the exact same thing that a DJ does... (Anyone that understands this please feel free to explain)

Speaking of copyright associated with music use... A recent copyright case involved the 1980' band Men at Work and Larrikin Music. It look 28 years for the similarities to be noticed between Men at Works hit song "Down under" and Marion Sinclair 1934 girl guides jamboree song "Kookaburra sits in the Old Gum Tree". Men at Work were found guilty of a copyright infringement and were ruled to pay 5% of all profits made from May 2002 to Larrikin Music (Originally Larrikin was asking to 40-60% of profits which was ruled unrealistic). Who would have thought that the sort of 'unofficial' Australian anthem would be in the middle of a copyright infringement case!

What do you think about the Men at Work copyright case.. Have a listen to the tracks! Do you think that Men at Work stole the tune to the song?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-02-04/listen-to-a-mix-of-both-songs-and-compare/321638

Wired to Work!

It's becoming more and more prevalent  in todays society that technology is blurring the lines between what is work and what is leisure as current forms of communication allow us to be contacted at various hours outside of our work place. After reading Greggs "Function Creep" reading it really emphasised to me and got me thinking that technology really does blur the line between work and leisure.

With the introduction of iPhones, iPads and other smart phones or communication the number of hours being worked by employees is being increased and sa mentioned in Greggs reading but Towers et. al. 2006 "New media devices enable increase work hours for many employees by invading personal and leisure time".

At present being a full time uni student I dont usually 'bring my work home with me' as I dont allow for my work emails to be accessed via my phone. However I will sometimes have my boss contact me via text, call or to my personal email to discuss some aspects of work for the following day. However for my Dad ALWAYS had work or readings or email answering or phone calls or late night meetings that need to be made or answered outside of work hours. It used to get quite frustrating cause what used to be 'family time' or 'a family dinner' was often disrupted due to this additional work outside of work hours. Not only does this disrupt leisure time but it adds to work stress levels.

A good read for communication students is a book called 'The Winter of our Disconnect' but Susan Maushart where it follows Maushart and her families 'disconnect' from technology. In the book she looks at the busyness of her families chaotic lives and points out the blurring of the line between work and leisure in todays culture due to digital devices (which are intended to make lives easier). She notes that "The constant mixture of the two (being work and digital technology) has led to a true misunderstanding of what leisure should be".

Do you think that the blurring of work and leisure is right? Where do we draw the line?

All the Private Parts Exposed!

After starting uni this semester and joining all of the new media platforms that are required for the subject it got me thinking I wonder just how much information is available about me on the internet and how much is set to private. So I decided to conduct a little test.. 

Just using Google I 'Googled myself' just to see how much information was readily available for the world to view! 

 

As seen in my Google screen shots above all of the information available from the 1st page of Google and Google Images was mainly from Social Networking sites, Blogs from another subjects and a job application I was a finalist for. This specific example shows how easily it is to loose control of your privacy and how easy it would be for strangers to get their hands on information about you. Each of my social networking sites are set as private and it is frustrating to know all my private information is still being advertised if searched and exposed for the world to see. I dont even have a Myspace account any more however all the images and information is stored on their servers and still out there for the world to view!! 

Privacy is a main concern especially when it comes to how much is readily available about you on the internet and what really concerns me is the number of young children who fake their age in order to make themselves a Facebook page when they don't completely understand the effects that it may have on them. 

Already some bosses or companies will view or request to view your Facebook profile before they employ you as a part of their company. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for all the 13-16 year olds who post obscenities, rude images and offensive language on their Facebook on a daily basis when they go to get a job and they are denied as a result of their immaturity as a teenager. 

Last week it was announced that Germany has made the Facebook Facial Recognition service on tagging photos illegal. In relation to the issue Johannes Caspar (2011) said "that this feature allows Facebook to gather data and this can only threaten the anonimity of Facebook users". 

What do you think about privacy on the internet and what is your opinion on Facebook's facial recognition service being banned in Germany? 

To the Internet and Beyond....

As a primary school student I remember studying the invention of the Telegraph, Radio and the Telephone and presenting my findings on a piece of prettied up cardboard with ‘cut and paste’ information from books and encyclopaedia’s not to mention the fact it was mainly done with the help of mum and dad! That was only 12-13years ago but boy has my understanding of communication and technologies changed since then!

Today I think we all underestimate the complexity of the communications that we use on a daily basis and in many cases take for granted. I could not think of anything worse than having to rely or use a horse to communicate to those that ‘aren’t in my line of sight’, and I don’t know about the rest of you but I know if that was how it works today it would be a long time in between communicating with some of my family and friends.

Before this weeks readings and lecture I was honestly oblivious to the fact the military first developed the concept of the internet or that there are undersea cables linking us to the rest of the world, call me dumb but I never thought about it that hard. I was always a curious kid but as I mentioned obviously took the internet and communications for granted!

This week I particularly liked Sterling, 1993 reading. It amused me as to the fact it discussed the possibilities for the internet however some 18 years later it has achieved these and gone above and beyond the expectations, as it failed to mention the possibility for: 

• Smartphones/ iPhones
• Social networking
• Skype 
• Or even wireless networks

What I found most interesting about this week’s discussion is the fact that with the internet and worldwide communication, “The world becomes a single body, wires and cables as its nerves”. I feel that is a good comparison as it assists with our understanding of how complex the internet is.

The image below of the global Facebook usage shows us the extent to which our usage of communication systems forms an electrical nervous system, whereby the lights signify the connection hubs.

The question is where can our technologies progress to from here?