Lisa Blogs

Twitter and it's close connection to the word Litter.

2008-03-31T05:03:00.000-07:00

Today I had a second look at Twitter, the networking website consisting of messages of the length of 140 characters. To be honest, the advertising video on their website alone kind of puts me off the idea all together.

It is true, we all seem to be addicted to the web, we read blogs, we send e-mails, we check our Facebook pages and even use our phones to connect to the web on the go, but twitter argues the idea behind it is to fill the gaps in which we are not capable of being on the web or to communicate. So basically to let the rest of the world know, when you are doing conventional living, real life living, like mowing the lawn or reading a book.

I think this idea, is firstly not very original, because Facebook Status Updates do exactly the same thing, without me having to sign up for yet another networking platform. Secondly in my opinion the idea, that we really need to put our whole life, all the small little things online, because it may be interesting to someone is an illusion. I really don't need to know, that my friend Eric is taking a shower, or that Margery is trimming her hedges today, because if I really needed to know what they are doing, I would give them a call or send them a text.

I think at some point our obsession with the online world goes too far. I am not excluding myself here, I know that I too have indulged in several different forms of internet obsession. But where will we draw the line?

The concept of liquid modernity by Zygmunt Bauman, once mentioned here before, seems to apply to this specific situation very strongly. The twitter messaging seems to be a complete decentralized, information overflow, that leaves no room for specificity, for detail, for a focus of some sorts. It is a mere proliferation of superficial appearances and observations without much content.

Maybe I am being harsh here, but the question for me is, when will I be connected enough? Shouldn't it be enough to be a member of three networking platforms? For my taste, this is already too much, because it is simply unnecessary to divert your attention on to three different tools that provide you more or less with the same service.

Any opinions on the matter?

Open for discussing this...

Mixtapes

2008-03-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

As someone who loves discovering new music and mixing compilations for friends, I have just found a treasure on the web today. The website I am talking about is called: Muxtape
Anyone can compile a mixtape on this website. You can upload your favourite tracks and put them in a nice mix for the mood of the day. The best thing about it however, is that you can stream other people's mixtapes. This is a brilliant way of discovering bands, that you would have otherwise never heard of.
Enjoy!

Final Impressions

2008-03-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

This term was a really crazy term for me, emotionally more than college-wise, however now that it has almost ended and that I am facing the scary reality of finishing my degree (hopefully) in two months time, it is time for some serious reflection.

Unfortunately even the thought of the future and it's complete and utter vastness, in comparison to the cosy little world that was my degree the last three years, seems scary and a bit hard to define.

So what I am going to start assessing and evaluating, is not the future, my future, but the past. The past term and the module I am writing this blog for especially.

In the beginning of term, I was at a loss at how to perceive this new media module. I was familiar with many of the concepts like HTML, blogs and internet identities already, out of personal interest and as you could read from a few of my last entries, personal experience.

Even though I thought I knew a lot on the issues discussed in this module, it was refreshing to get new perspectives on the online world, from our tutor Nigel, as well as fellow class mates and in the course of our group project.

I do think that the only way to experience and learn something new, is to listen to others and discuss ideas on an open platform, because ones' own view of the world is nice enough, but it will never change or expand if we don't keep an open mind and open ears for other ideas.

The thing I unexpectedly enjoyed the most in this module, was the writing and reflection process on this blog. Before I never really saw the opportunities a blog offers its author. It is an independent, individual medium. Even though we have to accept that we are still on a corporate platform, publishing our thoughts in an environment with terms and conditions, blogging gives the author a considerable amount of freedom in uttering his/her views.

The medium is less rigid and less controlled, than for example a newspaper environment. There is definitely more space for personal opinions and views, still I do not intend to play down or forget the dangers of sweeping statements and unsubstantiated opinions here.

I never thought, that people would actually read my thoughts on the world and the internet and was astonished to see, that even people that had nothing to do with our project whatsoever stumbled across these lines on the web.

I don't think, that the project blogging will be finished for me, after the completion of my course. I enjoy this process of reflection too much.

The group project was a difficult thing. With all our knowledge on HTML issues in a quite raw and basic state, the struggle is still on to meet our friday deadline and put the last finishing touches on our Wiki Pages. With the additional pressure of other assignments on our minds, as well as this term being cut extremely short by an early easter break, it was surely one of the hardest assignments to get to the finishing stages. Especially because in group work, you are always waiting for the opportune moment of the members of the group being at the same stage with their contributions to the work. It is quite difficult to accommodate this process, when everyone works at a different pace and has different stress-levels or ambitions in terms of finishing off work.

I do have to say, that I enjoyed working with my group. They are all friends of mine and I consider it a pleasure to spend time and work with them. Hopefully by friday, our Wiki Pages will tell tales of our team spirit, as much as the effort all of us put in.

This is not the end of this blog,.. so watch this space!

Life online

2008-03-05T08:16:00.001-08:00

Sitting in the British Library, I have been thinking, as always, not about the issues I am currently reading about. Oh, how easy it is to lead one's own thoughts astray.

I recently watched a You Tube video by Mike Wesch from Kansas State University, that our new media tutor told us to have a look at. It was made by him and his students, who were looking at how people of my age, our age, in short students today, spend their time and how they learn.

Apart from the design of the video not being that original or well done, it was really interesting. We can learn a lot about how our generation lives by looking at the results of the survey that these students did. The basic statements, that are made in the course of the video are things like:

My average class size is 115.
I read 49% of the reading assigned to me.
I surf the web, while in class.
I will read 8 books this year, 2300 web pages and 1281 Facebook profiles.
I listen to music 2.5 hours a day.
I spend 3,5 hours online. etc. etc. etc.

The end of the video states that this makes up a total average of 26,5 hours of activities a day.

This leads Mike Wesch's and his class to the conclusion, that we all have to be brilliant multi-taskers to manage to squeeze all of this into one single day.

When I saw the video, many things rang true to me. I grew up with the web, evolving parallel to my life. I was twelve when I had my first e-mail address, which is actually still the one I am using now, ten years later. I had my first chat-room phase when I was thirteen, that soon enough dragged me into a weird online life, with online friends and online problems. I am jut glad I got out of this phases as well. But one thing didn't change. I was online, my day has a certain percentage assigned to my online activities and I use the internet for sourcing all sorts of information. It is strange for me to remember the time before the internet was readily available, at any time of the day.

Strange to think how much real time I am wasting in a virtual space and on the other hand, how much real time the possibilities in this virtual space save me, because I don't have to buy my books in the bookshop, or I don't have to wait for that letter,...

It is certainly a new lifestyle we are living, a very fast one, and sometimes I think the flood of options we are faced with goes beyond what the human mind can possibly grasp.

Is that a good thing? For a fact, I only know, that the internet keeps me from concentrating on my dissertation research today, so I am going back to the books now!

Mike Wesch Video

Wiki Wiki Wiki

2008-02-28T03:29:00.000-08:00

This week in the wiki issue:

Our group has made some pictures for the Wiki, because we want to introduce ourselves as a group as well as presenting our ideas.
We have decided on a design for the Wiki as well, which we will make photos for during the course of this week.
We also arranged a research meeting, to discuss our sources and reorganise and refocus our Wiki- sections and check up on the progress of everyone's work.
We have discussed our responsibilities and, who will be responsible for the final edit of the Wiki.
And finally we have tried not to speak German anymore. :-)

Hope all is well in Wiki-land.

Wiki-wizards go!

Internet Censorship

2008-02-27T04:49:00.000-08:00

The internet has been used as a device to protest and argue for democracy on several occasions, most notably and recent for democracy in Burma. Unfortunately governments worldwide have been placing certain restrictions on their countries’ access to parts of the internet. It can be argued that this is a huge infringement of human rights and more particularly the right of free speech.

Especially in the case of China, Iran and Burma, which have become widely known for restricting public access to the internet.

According to Wikipedia “Burma has banned the websites of political opposition groups, sites relating to human rights, and organizations promoting democracy in Burma. During the 2007 anti-government protests, Burma completely shut down all internet links from its country.”

The website of Reporters without Borders denounces the countries with the worst internet censorship track record and Burma has a high rank, being described as “even more repressive than its’ Chinese and Vietnamese neighbours.”

In Iran another case of severe infringement of freedom of speech has occurred last year when the Shiite government banned the populations’ access to You Tube, already having placed a ban on political opposition websites. These tactics take away another channel, another medium, for the opposition and the public to get its’ voice heard.

An article on Iran’s censorship methods in USA Today describes the situation:

"The government is trying to create a digital border to stop culture and news coming from abroad — a vision of the Net which is worrying for the country's future…The Iranian government policy is not an isolated case. It is getting closer and closer to that of the authorities in China, with particular stress being laid on censorship of cultural output... "

Probably the most advanced country in terms of internet censorship, is China. Over the last decade it has gained a reputation for intensely monitoring any form of technological progress in an attempt to avoid new windows of free expression opening up to the Chinese population.

"They employ armies of moderators to clean up the content produced by the bloggers. Finally, in a country in which 52 people are currently in prison for expressing themselves too freely online, self-censorship is obviously in full force." (Reporters without Borders)

These were three strong examples of internet censorship, as practiced in many countries around the globe at the moment. This could make a case against the freedom of the internet and on the internet. It seems to be less open and unrestricted than we usually perceive it to be.

Still it is worth mentioning that it is exactly in those blatant cases of internet censorship that the internet has also been able to help to purport messages to other countries and vindicate the cry for democracy.

Not everything can be filtered and censored in time and that is exactly how the world learned of the human rights violations in Burma and the mass protests of the Burmese monks. In this case YouTube and Blogs of groups both inside and outside the country that oppose the military junta, have spread a considerable amount of awareness around the globe. They managed to disseminate pictures, videos and reports of people taking part in the protests and within days the struggle for democracy in Burma had become international news.

There is a point in joining the political/democratic process on the internet, so blog on!

2008-02-21T15:31:00.001-08:00

Oh, and by the way, I really hate to use this big font size, but my tutor kindly made me aware of my blog only being legible for mice with tiny glasses. So I had to sacrifice my grand plan for the design of this blog, for practical reasons. Sorry to all the readers of this blog, who will get an acute form of eye- cancer because of the sheer ugliness of the huge letters.

And yes: I am sponsored by London optometrists!

My Google-Self

2008-02-21T13:42:00.000-08:00

Today in this space: an exercise in discovering my more or less public online-identity.

I have googled my name before, just for the sole reason of finding out what my future employers are going to think about Lisa Riebenbauer, as she is represented on the web. This process of googling people, before inviting them for interviews is common practice by now and should be expected by any vigilant internet user.

However vigilant I want to see myself as, I didn't manage to keep my reputation from getting harmed online. As mentioned in this blog before, in my long rant about my interview misrepresentation mishap in an Austrian newspaper, I have already been presented online as the naive narcissistic girl from next door, that has very little control or knowledge about how to keep her private life private.

Ouch, that hurts, especially as a student of Media and Cultural studies, that wants to go into the professional direction of broadcast journalism. Unfortunately the link to this horrible article, is number two in my Google-ranking. Here I am, still wondering whether to threaten this newspaper with a libel lawsuit.

The first space of my Google-list is taken by this blog. This makes me very happy indeed, hoping that future employers will read my critical thoughts on the article first and then will judge me by my own thoughts instead of the ones of a frustrated, spiteful journalist from Austria who forms unsubstantiated arguments from a telephone interview.

The third google listing I am mentioned in is a more positive one than the first one. It is taken from my father's company website. My father runs a company that plans heating plants that are based on renewable energies (focusing on biomass and solar energy). In one of the news sections of the website, he mentions the prize I won for my first academic work, in my final year of school. I wrote it on Business and Ethics and how it is not necessary to sacrifice ethics to make profits. This work I am quite proud of, because I even got some prize money for it. Okay now I come across as a narcissistic idiot again and this time it's my own fault. :-)

My forth listing, is quite an old one. I used to be a youth group leader for our local parish in Vienna. We took the kids to the countryside in the summer for a week and did all the things city kids usually miss out on with them: Hiking, camp fires, barbecues, face painting, climbing etc. This reveals my catholic background, which I don't really live anymore but neither am ashamed of.

My conclusion: My Google-identity seems like a fractured fragment of myself.

Wicked Wiki Wizards (WWW)

2008-02-21T12:56:00.000-08:00

Today another update in the series of the wicked Wizard Wiki ideas.

We have been researching our topic of internet identities over the last few weeks and today I can proudly present you some of the literature sources we are going to use.

Going through our library catalogue I found some very relevant sources, that we are going to be able to work with, some very recently published and some as far back as 1996. 1996 doesn't seem like a long time ago, but in internet terms 1996 is kind of the equivalent to pre-historic times.

The main authors and editors I looked at so far are:

Esther Dyson, James Slevin, David Trend and Steven Jones

Esther Dyson's book is called "Realease 2.1- A design for living in the digital age"

It has some very interesting chapters on Online Communities, Online Privacy, Online Anonymity and Online Security, which is going to feed into the sources for our Wiki- section about Security and Privacy issues online.

In David Trend's book, "Reading digital culture" I found the chapters called Performing identity in Cyberspace, Cyber-democracy and Virtual skin: Articulating race in Cyberspace vital information that could make up part of our Wiki-information.

James Slevin's book "The internet society" is talking about The internet and how it transforms the way we create and communicate. He also talks about virtual communities as a social sphere and the problems they create for society. Feeding into the issues with Privacy and security in online communities, he dedicates a whole chapter to the issue of Publicness on the internet.

Steven Jones edited a collection of essays on "Cybersociety 2.0- Revising computer-mediated comunication and community". The essays are talking about The emergence of online community, as well as Text as a mask: Gender play, and performance on the internet, and Virtual ethnicity.

These are only some of the ideas for texts we could use as sources for our Wizard wiki, at the moment we are arrived at the stage of gathering information in the different areas we have taken charge of, so Wizards, dig into the massive amount of online-literature there is and let's give each other hints about useful sources we find on the way.

Wiki-Wizards let's do some magic!

Comparing Websites, BBC versus ORF

2008-02-13T15:48:00.000-08:00

VS.

Today I want to analyze the characteristics of two websites, in terms of their presentation of content and style.

I have looked at Public Broadcasting corporation websites. For this purpose I have taken a look at the BBC website and the ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) websites.

Looking at the two websites, I immediately noticed that the presentation of the content and the layout showed considerable differences.

The ORF has a very plain look. The news headlines of the day, being displayed in a series of pictures in a very prominent top end spot of the page, with only a small rail of links on top, that lead to the other parts of the corporations activities than that of news, like radio, Tv and sports programs. The design is simple, but effective and gives the reader a quick overview, a bit like with a tabloid news paper cover.

The BBC on the other hand gives the viewer much more to deal with at once. It has three rows of content listed, all in written links. The only picture on the page seems to be the advertisement for the new BBC I-Player with Lilly Allen smiling from it. Even though the links are organized in columns it is quite a lot to deal with at first glance.

The content however is much more advanced than on the ORF website. While the ORF website goes for an easy reading experience and big neatly organized pictures, the BBC have a lot more and extensive content to the page and less obtrusive usage of images. The reading experience is quite different, in terms of standard of the online journalism brought forward.

The background of the ORF website is colored in a quite playful blue tone, while the BBC websites radiates a certain sincerity with it's clear lines and quite simple design.

Overall I would say the BBC website is certainly the site where content is easier retrievable, if the user knows what he/she is looking for. The ORF website gives initial overview in pictures, but the rest of the content of the page is quite plain and the search engine does not retrieve relevant information in terms of past news stories.

The BBC website could definitely be improved by some de-cluttering, but seen over all it offers better and more detailed access to information.

That's it for today.

So long.

Wik-i-deas

2008-02-11T06:21:00.000-08:00

Today our Wiki Group discussed the content and structure of our Wizard Wiki page. Nigel made us aware, that our plans for content were pretty ambitious and that we might have to go a bit more into detail on the issues we want to discuss, hence narrow down the content to one or two specific case studies.

We agreed on looking at communication, structures and identity on the examples of Facebook and My Space, because these two seemed to us to be the archetypal networking websites.

Of course there has been internet networking before these websites existed, but we thought, speaking in contemporary terms of relevance these two were the most influential in recent years on internet identity issues, as well as ownership.

Our Wiki- Pages/ Categories will be called:

Introduction
Our Team

Communication
Myspace vs Facebook
General observations on the structures
Advertising and ownership
Privacy and security
Conclusion

We have assigned pages to every subject and group0 member and are now gonna start the process of writing and contributing to them.

Twittervision/ Flickrvision

2008-02-06T07:33:00.000-08:00

Last monday Nigel showed us two pages that kind of scared me at first. This is surely gonna come into what I will write on privacy and security online. Twittervision is a page on which every second another twitter(blog entry) from somewhere around the globe is shown and you can zoom in on where exactly the person that wrote the entry has posted. I read a page that Nigel reccomended us on how to use Twitter for educational purposes and it says that, as long as you don't set your account to private anyone in the world might see your entries pop up on Twittervision. This is something one should be aware of, especially people who express strong views online. I just find it a bit frightening, that anyone could just find and read what I wrote.

Maybe this is a bit stupid of me to say, since I have this blog publicly accessible as well, but I guess it just feels like it doesn't trigger as much attention or clicks as something that is continuously posted on this map of entries.

Life online, is a strange thing. In some way I guess, even if we are aware of the massive community the internet entails, the human mind doesn't have a grasp of how public it really is.

I mean by now, I have three online networking accounts, one with Facebook, one with My Space and one with a German networking website called StudiVz. I didn't even intend to join so many platforms, but different friends, being on different platforms sort of made me join more and more communities by the by.

If all of them are gonna be outdated within the space of the next year or two, as it has happened with many other internet communities before, the rate of change and the output of information gets a bit scary. There is all this information already out there and it just keeps growing.

As this person on the website on educational uses of Twitter said:

"There are some Twitter users whose goal seems to be to follow as many people as possible. How can one possibly follow 10,000 people? They do this simply to get others to visit their Twitter site and then click on links that will take them to a different website (some of which may not be safe). When they follow you, anyone who is interested in see who your followers are will see their link."

Doesn't the actual content loose importance in this age of more, higher, quicker? Too much information and at the same time you can google almost anyone nowadays to gain specific information on them. It is all a bit overwhelming.

Anyhow, so much for today.

Group Wiki

2008-02-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

So we have put some ideas together for our group Wiki this week. We have outlined the areas we want to touch upon in terms of online communities and online identity. Our Wiki will focus on issues around the construction of the self through social networking.

The topics we want to discuss in this framework of ideas are Privacy and Security, Online Identity, Advertising and Ownership and Friendships and Communication.

Since I have been thinking about the issues around privacy and security a lot lately, I have signed up for writing this part of our Wiki. In this context I want to touch upon the loss of privacy and the kind of voyeurism that these networking platforms trigger in people. We are watching ourselves and other lives through this medium and very little remains in the sphere of the private. Things that formerly would have not been publicly discussed are now open for comment on these pages. Also the fact, that people often are too generous with the information they give about themselves is something I want to write about. How we make ourselves vulnerable and easy to manipulate by publishing too much information about ourselves is a vital issue in this discourse.

I think the group had some great ideas last monday, now we just have to keep thinking about them and working out how we want to arrange things visually, since our first idea for the design was beautiful, but not feasible in terms of html-programming.

Identity and Online Communities

2008-02-04T05:22:00.000-08:00

The issue of identity on networking plattforms like Facebook, Flickr and co is a very complex one. Networking platforms are being used by different people, for different purposes and reasons.

If I may speak for myself: I use Facebook for several reasons. First of all for keeping in touch with my friends around the globe. Since I have been living in Australia, Austria and the UK I have many friends that live quite far away. Facebook has made keeping updated on each others lives much easier and saves me a lot of time, that I would spend writing long update-emails to everyone in my acquaintance.

The second reason for me to use Facebook, is to have photo albums again. Since it has become easier to upload quite large photo files, I have been revelling in having my photographs in albums again. The tradition of consciously showcasing a selection of pictures in the form of an album has somehow suffered since the arrival of digital photography. We have endless amounts of snapshots on our hard drives, that we might never look at again if it wasn't for the opportunity to organise them online. For me, these albums have another really positive quality: The fact that I have safety copies of my favourite pictures online is a clear bonus.
I use Facebook only to keep in contact with friends I know in real life. I have no friends in there that are online acquaintances, which makes it a platform for me and my friends to discuss, message, post and inform each other on.

I guess that my use of Facebook is not a typical one. I can imagine that many people have a more open approach to meeting people on the web, however these acquaintances need to be treated with caution. Who knows what hides behind an online identity. People can say all sorts of things on the internet that aren't neccessarily true. So I guess identity on the internet can be seen as a hybrid.

Having an identity on a networking platform has of course also a lot to do with representation. This is an online representation of yourself. Of course noone would like a boss or authority figure in their life to see a weak side of theirs. Hence most people try top keep their profiles as close to the image they want to convey of themselves in public as possible.
This might be described as the narcissistic part of online networking platforms and identities, but I would argue it is simply logical thinking that drives people to polish their image online.
After all, in the age of the internet and Google, an online profile can make or break a job opportunity as much as a CV could.

Group Wiki

2008-01-31T04:14:00.001-08:00

Our Wiki- group, consisting of Alice, Philipp, Belle and me has been talking about doing our project on Online Communities. One of our ideas was about educational websites for children on the internet and one idea was that we could do something on privacy and data-abuse in the context of online communities. We are still trying to make the scope of our project a bit more focused and to narrow it down to a concise and relevant topic. I think we need to discuss it a bit more, before making a definite decision, but both areas look very interesting and promising in terms of research. Maybe we could even put the two issues into one big "privacy and security on the internet" theme.

Facebook stole my Journalistic Integrity

2008-01-28T07:20:00.000-08:00

Today I want to entertain the readers of this blog with an anecdote about my life online and how I find it scary how much people assume about you after only having had a quick glimpse of your profile on networking websites like Facebook. It also is an appeal to people, to think twice about which people to give interviews to.

Before christmas I was contacted by a young journalist from Austria. She asked me whether I would give her an interview for an article about networking websites, since my profile had come to her attention through the Austria-Network page.

The weekly paper she is writing for is distributed in Austria nationwide and the arrticle was the head article of the paper this week. She said she had already interviewed a lot of people and was using all the answers she got to get some sort of picture on how people perceive Facebook and to get quotes for her article.

She called me up and interviewed me for about 45 minutes and asked me questions like:

Do you find it scary how much information you have to reveal to beable to join these networking websdites?

How do you handle your privacy settings?

What do you use Facebook for?

Do you know the people you are in contact with over Facebook?

Etc.

Unfortunately I gave her permission to use my full name, which I now deeply regret. However I wasn't aware of having said anything ridiculous. I just gave her my honest opinions: That I think that you have to be careful with which details you reveal on the internet, especially on publicly accessible pages, how I thought less of My Space ever since Rupert Murdoch owns it, Facebook is a similar case with Microsoft and the data- sell out. How I only have friends in my list, that I know in real life and don't use networking websites to meet strangers. Etc.

Her article turned out to not only start with my name, she used me throughout the article as an example of the stupid and naive internet user, that works on some sort of narcisisstic self-glorification with pictures of herself. It was a subtle, but quite clear criticism of my person. It was clearly visible, that she had tried hard to find some sort of negative stance on Facebook and that she didn't want to approve of it. So what she did was, taking parts of what I said completely out of context and quoting it, she also quoted graffiti messages from my profile wrongly and in a completely distorted way and all the media theory I had given her she presented as her personal opinion and research.

You can imagine, that I felt really shocked about this. If she already has to change facts and make someone look really stupid in an article that will be accessible online, she should at least be so kind as to not quote the persons whole name.

I do care for my journalistic reputation and she has by risking hers, by publishing a pourly researched article, damaged it considerably.

So be careful and aware of who watches and comments your content.

Sidereel

2008-01-26T16:23:00.001-08:00

This week has not been turning out as the most inspiring in terms of my internet activities. Thinking about the work load that is slowly approaching me in terms of dissertation and other assignments I have devoted a lot of my free time to doing absolutely nothing and dwelling in the art of procrastination.

A large part of this complete procrastinatory phase has involved watching copious amounts of my favorite "stupid American show", that I had been watching obsessively back home in Austria at some point four years ago.

Now the point, why this is relevant to my internet-related blog, is because I was able to watch all this and be kept from doing REAL work on the internet. A friend of mine had two weeks ago recommended the page Sidereel to me, on which anyone can find, stream and comment/discuss most American Tv Shows made over the last decade and more.

I was even more fascinated when I figured out that the page was a publicly editable Wiki and that many people are contributing, blogging and working on it. To be kept informed about changes, new postings and anything else that is going on in the Sidereel space you can subscribe to it's RSS feed.

The best thing about it is, that it seems to be legal as well. Unfortunately I will have to ban this website quite soon from my computer, otherwise I might just end up as some Tv junkie/college drop out.

Have a peek and try not to get hooked!

On Reflection

2008-01-21T05:31:00.001-08:00

Today we are talking about the concept of Reflection in our class on New Media.

Our blog can be the place for a continuing line of reflection on all sorts of issues that we face and deal with in our every day lives. In that sense we are working in a very democratic medium.

Reflection has to do with experience, with observation and a personal point of view. It is how we perceive the world around us at any one particular point of our lives.

It is a very interesting concept, because it gives the power of observation and comment back to the individual. Today, with the possibilities the internet provides for us, we all are all capable of publishing our opinions and thoughts, without having to be an academic, a journalist or even a specialist on an issue. There is no scrutinizing eye of an editor, that needs to approve of our thoughts and we are free to say and promote whatever we believe in.

Is it true freedom of speech? Is it dangerous to let everyone, and I mean EVERYONE write whatever they want? (See post below, political advertising example...)

Who am I to judge?

A Spot of Bother - News on the Web from Austria

2008-01-19T12:46:00.000-08:00

This week I read an article in an Austrian weekly magazine called Profil, that dealt with the mayoral election in Graz. Graz is the capitol of the county my parents come from in Austria which is called Styria.

It is absolutely appalling what is happening there at the moment. There are two parties in particular that make this whole political campaign a real shame for my country, the FPÖ and the BZÖ. Two parties, that once were united and still are equally racist and divisive in their right wing political agendas.

The BZÖ have as far as I have heard handed out "PR-material" that were little brooms, with which they would metaphorically "clean up" the city. This is nothing else than pure right wing propaganda.

But these horrible brooms weren't even the gist of it, basically a woman called Mrs. Winter, who is the candidate for the FPÖ has publicly described Mohammed as a pedophile

and the party's whole poster campaign was oriented along the lines of: We have to ge

t rid of all these foreigners, to get more jobs for our own people and to diminish the crime rates.

Apart from crime rates having nothing what so ever to do with the fact that there are foreigners, I find it incredible that this sort of advertising is still allowed in Austria.

Our history should have taught us, that these forms of advertising are only some sort of radicalization of the most easily polarized part of the population.

I think Austria is still very backward in certain ways and many people have narrow minds mixed with a very low level of tolerance.

This whole issue is not only a problem of "these others", that I have nothing to do with. Last time I was in Austria, I heard someone that I and my parents have known all my life say: "I am happy that there is no Muslims in our village. " (Said in context of a discussion about terrorism) I couldn't believe this ignorant statement coming from a well educated and well travelled person, who believes himself to be some sort of valuable part of the community he lives in.

I can't help but feel ashamed of such ignorance and can only say that in moments like these I am very happy to live in London, this incredibly beautiful multi-colored and -cultured city.

To read articles about the current political situation in Austria go to:

Presse (Article on the above mentioned Campaign)

Der Standard (Daily left of center newspaper, not unlike the Guardian)

Falter (Weekly, quite left leaning Newspaper)

ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, quite tabloid news website)

Sorry people these websites are only available in German, so get your language skills in gear.

Further information:

Graz (Website of the city, I am mentioning)

Kakanien Revisited

2008-01-16T08:55:00.001-08:00

One of my politically most informed friends, whose opinions and thoughts I greatly value and keep learning from has just given me some really interesting links to an academic blog in Austria that she and some of her colleagues have contributed to. It is called Kakanien Revisited. This blog includes many interesting academic articles about the power of the internet in our time. My friend Sabine wrote a paper on the role the internet played in the Kosovo conflict, which is really interesting . Another really fascinating article on the issue of weblogs and internet dialogues can be found on the same blog, written by a woman called Karin Harrasser. The abstracts can be read in German and English language, but the actual papers are written in German only so here the link for all of you who are interested and want to have a look. Thanks for sharing Sabine!

Modernity

2008-01-16T07:33:00.000-08:00

Today I went to a lecture about Modernity, which inspired me to write down some thoughts on it. Our tutor spoke about the notion of modernity becoming a "liquid modernity" (term coined by a guy called Zygmunt Bauman) the further we develop ourselves within it. A quote by Nietzsche was mentioned that made me think, it went along the lines of: We are more free than ever before in this immense space around us, we can look around, but equally there is a feeling of a big void surrounding us, us loosing control.

This is an idea that is more than true for the age of the internet. When I come to think about the immense new world of options that this virtual space has opened up for us, I can't help but feeling lost in the vastness of it. Maybe that is why we are constantly trying to develop and map things on the internet, because it gives us back some sense of control that we have long lost.

The enormous amount of possibilities of choice that the internet gives us, also makes for a flood of impressions, that our brains might have difficulties dealing with, creating a void.

Another quite interesting notion that could feed into this is the notion of "non-places" or "in-between places", a term used by Marc Augé, who speaks about the places that modernity made in which we are in a stagnant or expectant/waiting state or state of transfer. Is us being on the internet and having internet identities one of these states of transfer, one of the non-places we move in?

Our tutor also spoke about the enormous responsibility this form of modernity places on us. Because of all the choice and all the options that modernity confronts us with, we have to be three times as aware of our actions and our responsibility to discern between right and wrong and all the information we consume through our every day media intake.

The third thing that struck me in the lecture was the idea of Modernity being deeply involved with

the quest for the Authentic, found in pilgrimage and in tourism . The world has become incredibly small for us, through technology. We are now living lives that are fragmented. We can work here in England at home and the company we are employed by is somewhere in Australia or another part of the world. This leads me to the ideas of Fragmentation and Exile that where also mentioned in the course of the lecture.

I think what I am writing here might not be making sense to anyone, so I am gonna finish off now... before I start to confuse myself too much.

I am adding a picture taken by Josef Koudelka, a czech photographer, that we were shown. His work is very inspiring and tells amazing stories, look him up if you get a chance!

Picture Source

Lila blogs in Oz

2008-01-15T10:19:00.000-08:00

Today I would like to recommend to all of you, to have a look at my friend Lisa Lang's blog. I met Lisa, while doing an internship at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image last spring. Lisa is one of the most multi-facetted people I know. She can do almost anything: She takes beautiful pictures, has been working on exhibition designs, radio shows and as a journalist in Melbourne and has a very practical approach to all her tasks.

This capability of adapting to almost any work environment I find really fascinating and it makes her blog a very interesting piece of writing, full of creative impulses.

Lisa is originally from Germany but I think that Australia is by now very much her home.

I can understand why she stayed, I probably would have stayed in Melbourne too if I had had some family there. :-)

Lila's Blog

Guardian on Facebook

2008-01-14T15:48:00.000-08:00

Today, my friend Sabine made me aware of an article about Facebook in the technology section of the Guardian. My friend and me are having an ongoing discussion about Facebook and it's very similar equivalents My Space and Studi Vz, etc.

The article takes a very critical stance towards these new forms of communication via the web. It tells us some interesting facts about the three main people behind Facebook and gives an overview of Facebook's privacy infringements.

I find many of the claims and concerns uttered in this article incredibly true and completely justified. I myself have had a very frightening experience involving Facebook, in which my personal site was used and misquoted for a publication. Admittedly, this was not Facebooks fault, but only my own, for leaving my site open to random visitors from my own network.

To say a few words in defense of Web 2.0 applications before I have to finish of for today:

I do enjoy finding old friends again on Facebook and other sites.
I find it much easier now to stay in touch with people, because I can share my pictures, my thoughts and my everyday sentiments with them, without having to write a long "catch up" e-mail every time for filling everyone in on what happened in the time we haven't seen each other. So it gets much easier to write about things that really matter and staying in touch doesn't seem like such an obstacle anymore.
I do enjoy having photo albums again, since photography became digital I hadn't had any proper albums anymore. Now with the easy upload possibility I not only have the chance to put my album online for my friends to see, I also have another way of getting backups of my pictures for myself.
Facebook has become a plattform for many important protest declarations and human rights campaigns, for example to solidarise with the monks in Burma. We also have to think of the potential Facebook has to reach people from all countries and spread awareness in these really important matters and give people a voice that usually wouldn't have had one.

I probably could think about a few more points, but I am too tired now.

This post is not meant to discredit the article in the Guardian, quite to the contrary. I just thought it might be good to get some positive voices in as well. (Probably I am just having a bad conscience for still being a Facebook user after reading the article...) :-)

So long everyone...

Lisa

PS: Here the link to the above mentioned article

A new needle and thread...

2008-01-14T07:19:00.000-08:00

Today I officially became a blogger.

Let's face it, I got into the habit quite late and I am not really sure whether I have the skill or the controversial opinions needed to make an interesting blog. What I do know is that it will be a great platform for my musings on certain political subjects, as well as my love for photography.

It is gonna be good to get some thoughts written down and published, even if it's only for myself to read in a few years time.

Enjoy.