Elliot describes data bases as an “organised collection of information”. I guess I always thought that it was exclusive to the internet but in that sense a library is a database. The debate that databases can be random was interesting as Betty said that a database in systematized way of retrieving information but there seems to be more a grey area according to Jason. Even our blogs are databases as everything online is a database. The fact that the access to data can be limited by local law is especially true for countries such as China. The recent Hong Kong protests have promoted the Chinese government blacklist words on the internet such as “cultural revolution”, “overthrow” and “oppression”.

Ok so this week’s symposium was more or less about our upcoming assignment (don’t remind me UGH!). Adrian said that we need to be more critical in our writing along with a theoretical engagement so that we make an argumentative essay rather than an opinion based one. This is also the same feedback I got in my draft so I will definitely get in that. He also talked about working as a team and be able to collaborate with other in order to get the best outcome for our essays as it can be mutually beneficial. It was also said that we should not wonder into different directions as it would be better to choose a point a focus on that as it will be easier to critically engage with one area than all area of my interest. Adrian likened it to a cone where we start off with a general idea and slowly make our way down to a well thought out point.

This had a more lecture type feel to it than the previous ones but anyway onto the points.

We dealt with the different types of networks in the both the reading and tutor with Elliot as he also brought up nodes as the stations in the trains network in Melbourne. This network is much more restricted than the scale free network that the internet is as it can has no limit on how much it grows and expands. The process of using tags and categorizing our posts is a way to lead people to visit particular nodes that we want to users to see.

The site Cowbird was quite interesting as it curates the aggregation of stories submitted by users though the use of key words and categories. This is a good example to how every story can relate to each other. The whole ‘Oracle of Kevin Bacon’ thing was both humorous to think about and also a great example of links in a network. The fact that every celebrity is in some way linked to Kevin Bacon shows how easy it is to link people if we take the time to trace back the links we can go to some unexpected and strange places.

Another week another symposium reflection hammered out, I think I might be falling into a routine. Yeah there are going to be a lot of hammer jokes in this one so you have been warned.

Have you been asking yourself if technology neutral? Well you’re in luck because that was the main focus of this week’s symposium. After much debating and strange analogies involving hammers we got to the conclusion that technology is in fact not neutral. Yeah that whole hammer thing just made me think of parachute pants and being poor but that is post for another day. The fact that such a simple object such as a hammer can have so many relationships involving hundreds of years of research and development, is a great example of primitive technology evolving into the tool we all take for granted.

Can’t touch this, there is said it or more accurately I wrote it.

You are probably thinking “ohh he’ll just include a picture of MC Hammer haha”. Well the image below will prove just how wrong you really are.

So here we again discussing what people discussed questions discussed by a class the other week. End point being there is a lot of discussions going on.

What struck me as very interesting was the about unconscious intent as before Adrian pointed out the chair that I was sitting on, I never actually felt how hard and uncomfortable it was. Intent is getting lost more and more these days as the way we are communicating is more text based we might not get all the information we need in order to accurately figure out the intent of the sender.

He also brought up the point that the intent of the author is actually irrelevant as the Bonds ad he saw that day proved this point. I can only assume that the producers of the ad never meant for it to be offensive, but it is. We had this discussion (it’s like it the bloody word of the day for crying out loud) in a past class as our intent with our posts can never hold up in an argument so if someone has a problem with it we must take it down. on the topic on irrelevance:

Now this week’s symposium made me wonder about two things:

– Why is it so easy for our generation to share private information about ourselves?
– Does this mean that we have forgotten about privacy altogether?

For the first point I want to point out that not everyone is naive and willingly shares everything about themselves on social media. However there is an overwhelming amount of people that just don’t care about the potential harm this could do their lives in the present and the future. These social networking companies make it quite easy for these to use them as a platform for the world to notice. This makes me think that we naturally want to feel included and important in the eyes of others and by being online we have a sense of safety as typically when online we are in an environment we are familiar with and comfortable with.

As for the second point I don’t think we forgotten about privacy, instead we created an illusion that the space where we share the information is safe. The same people will never yell out these private details from the roof tops out of the fear of strangers hearing it. When online there are a lot more eye balls that can see this information but since we don’t see them in our mind they are not there. As a great man once said, “out of sight, out of mind.”

Last week time was not on my side and to be fair neither was it this week and frankly when is it ever on anyone’s side except death. Anyway I missed last weeks post about the symposium but I’m here this week.

This week I actually found myself agreeing a lot about what has been said about high school as a the production line that after 6 years leaves dazed and confused and even worse ill prepared to face the real world. Basically we are grouped together in a class because our parents happened to conceive us in the same year and that’s it. How the educational system is set out, it limits any uniqueness to learning. I remember when I was in year 9 or year 10, the whole class conducted a multiple intelligences test which acts as an indicator for what type of learning best suites you. It was pretty safe to say that the entire class wasn’t a visual learner so why are we grouped on what type of learning best suites us if school is supposedly as learning institute?

Oh the good old days when hash tags used to stand for an unspaced phrase prefixed with numbers to indicate orders. I can get nostalgic at times. Anyway I should probably start writing something relevant to the actual title but then again there is the word ” Pandemonium” in the title but I digress. Today’s symposium/Q&A or whatever they call it raised a couple of discussions that made me cautious about every word I type on this blog. With the ever present threat of being sued from an offshore lawyer on my mind I wonder why people even have these outlets when the ramifications for an intentional infringement. I guess it’s the basic human desire to be heard and to have a place within society. Defamation is something that many people don’t consider when posting online because to me anyway, we have a sense of entitlement that we can say anything we want and get away with it because it’s just our opinion. The cause of that sense of entitlement may be because of our exposure to American media because in those scenarios they have the defense of freedom of speech. In our case we have no such thing and neither do most countries. On the other hand we can be critical of something and actually back up our view rather than just clicking caps lock and absolutely go to town with our expansive crude vocabulary. I guess what I took from today’s symposium is that the web is very one sided when it comes to legal matters. As publishers we are solely responsible for what appears on out platforms and if someone is offended or feels that I have committed a breach, I don’t argue with then or else I’ll be paying damages until I’m six feet under. Seriously though people got fined an enormous amount of money and being a student I’m already poor enough.

(I’m testing out a few sign off lines so yea here is one that I might keep or remove)

Let the Chaotic times roll.

Just to be clear I have read the readings and watched the videos, I just didn’t know what to do exactly so please be kind.

It interesting to read how many copyright laws there are on the internet. With all the different international  copyright laws how could i possibly keep up with all of them? It was surprising to read that there the freedom of speech defence doesn’t apply in australia. I guess i assumed that we did since i head it so many times in American films and tv shows.