Do we really own a press of our own?

I just wanted to post a response to one of the key messages from todays lecture. One of the statements during the lecture about freedom of press in the past was that "freedom of press is only for those who own one". Nowadays we all own a press, that is, through the internet we are able to spread are own opinion very easily and quickly at basically no costs.

I am just wondering wether we actually own a press now ourselves or merely use a common one that is provided to us by higher authorities. My point is that we seem to have unlimited possibilities to spread our thoughts on the internet, however at the same time there are still a lot of things being censored, modified and monitored by higher powers that either legally or illegally seem to have the real power over what happens on the internet. So are we really that free in spreading our thoughts on the internet or is this maybe just an illusion?

Richard Stallman will be in Sweden next week

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I talked a little about the hacker-philosopher Richard Stallman at today's lecture. Well guess what, he'll be in Sweden next week.

More specifically he will be at the Society for Free Culture and Software's FSCONS event. The bad news is that this event is held in Gothenburg and Stallman will talk there on Thursday night (Nov 10).

The event starts on Thursday, there are workshops on Friday and the main program is held Saturday - Sunday. The program is available online and it has tracks on topics that are related to the course such as "Free software in politics", "Human rights and digital freedoms", "Building together - manufacturing solidarity".

For those of you who are interested but can't attend, you can instead follow their blog.

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The Future of Communications

Hi there!
Found this really interesting and fascinating clip. It talks about how communications will evolve in the next few years and how they can potentially emerge in a couple of decades. Somehow, the notion of virtual reality disappears. Would be great to see your reactions on this :)

ENJOY! 

Beyond Web 2.0

There have been debates regarding the evolution of the web. The way the web evolved from Web 1.0, where the web used to be mere static pages to Web 1.5, many had considered the evolution was breathtaking which was the era when the web had assumed more dynamic fashion. However, it was only to be overshadowed by the emergence of Web 2.0, or in simple language, SOCIAL MEDIA. Social media has been at the forefront since a number of years now. The aftereffects it has reproduced are breathtaking. Analysts who examine social media and its evolution believe that the web is moving towards what we would call Web 3.0. Essentially, Web 3.0 would be offering more personalization to media consumers which will provide them more liberty to choose the content types they like. It goes beyond the "conventional" (although I don't agree with this terminology!) type of User-Generated Content media consumers are accustomed to. When will Web 3.0 form part of the mainstream?

Since media is becoming more and more fragmented and volatile, competition amongst content providers is becoming fiercer. some plays want to remain ahead of others in the race to achieve superiority. One example I was going to outline here was the emergence of "Gmail Motion" (a prank joke by Google on April 01, 2011), something which I believe could be a major step towards Web 3.0. Google advocated that "Gmail Motion uses your computer's built-in webcam and Google's patented spatial tracking technology to detect your movements and translate them into meaningful characters and commands". It is indeed an eyeopener and I think the race towards Web 3.0 will be on fire now.

A demo of what Google tried to show can be seen right here. ENJOY!

Power of Interactive Classrooms

Simply awesome! A must see! How interactive sessions at school can result beneficial for students? How powerful "content" such as video can aid effective learning and create social value. Essentially MEDIA is  becoming increasingly SOCIAL!

ENJOY!!!

'The Dangers Of Externalizing Knowledge'

Came across this article The Dangers Of Externalizing Knowledge, while learning (or memorizing) for our Leadership exam. It has an interesting take on one of our seminar topics – whether it’s no longer important to remember stuff (unable to recollect the exact wording :P)

The author’s worry is not the ‘short attention span’ or our ‘reliance on non-text media’, but the ‘stopping to value the accumulation of information within ourselves’. Quoting a couple of his thoughts:

“…GPS in cars is an advance party of this trend: every couple months we hear of some driver who has followed the GPS to the bottom of a lake, or used a highway as a walking path because it was labeled as such on their phone’s map…”

“We’ve gone from being intellectual predators to intellectual filter feeders, and soon I wonder whether we’ll even deserve that title”

Me/ think technology’s probably the reason for 9/11 too else we’d have had only a bunch of stone-pelters. On a more serious note, while his article is written to convince, I feel it has a touch of paranoia (probably expecting Black Swan events)
What do you think?

Social media art provocation

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"Tired of ineffective democratic processes? - Discover the new click-democracy!"

Then you should check out the wonderful service/social media art project Repetitionr.com that I referred to in one of the seminar groups yesterday.

And while you're at it, do check out the Painstation too ("No pain no game").

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