Database Logic
The week 11 reading detailed more about the notion of networks, specifically looking at the ‘actor-network’ theory (ATN). The important take-away ideas were not so much about ATN but about the wider characteristics of networks.
The reading dealt with the misunderstandings to do with networks because of the various meanings and usages of the word ‘network’. The word shouldn’t be given a technical meaning that implies subway or phone networks and it also shouldn’t be considered as having much to do with the study of social networks.
The properites common to all networks are:
In terms of computer networks, these can be considered to be intensely connected, distant, compulsory and strategically organised. However, an actor network may lack these characteristics and can be local, have no compulsory paths and no strategically placed nodes.
Finally, the theory should make you think in terms of nodes that have as many dimensions as connections.
The Potts and Murphie reading was about key theories relating to culture and technology and our society. Here’s a list of the key points I took away from reading:
– McLuhan’s theory: All technologies are extensions of human capacities
tools and implements are extensions of manual skills, the computer an extension of the brain
– Media are technologies that extend human sense perceptions
This reading was very long however there I do have some key takeaway ideas from my reading.
The reading discussed how the terms ‘diagram’, ‘technology’ and ‘management style’ come together in the modern age to define a new ‘apparatus of control’. The diagram refers to a distributed network resembling a web, technology is the computer and the management style is protocol.
Galloway ponders how the rise of technology will affect our future society and in particular thinks about who will have power and control. The theorist, Deleuze, believes we will exist in societies of control. They will operate with machines, information technology and computers. In this sense, Galloway and Deleuze say that power will no longer reside to the government as command and control will be able to move around.
Galloway speaks about computer protocol and defines it as a ‘set of recommendations and rules that outline specific technical standards’. On the internet, one such body of protocol is known as RFC (request for comments) documents. They are used by engineers who want to build hardware or software to meet common specifications.
Besides this, all this talk about control societies made me start imaging the premises for future dystopian worlds (both fictional and real!)
The John Potts and Andrew Murphy reading consider the terms ‘technology, culture and technique’ and how they intertwine in our society.
In thinking about what technology is:
The reading then went on to discuss what a technique is:
Finally, what is culture?
The second reading for the week was again by Barabasi, on the “rich get richer” rule. To be perfectly honest, this week’s readings have (so far) failed to interest me. They seem to just drizzle on about nodes and hubs and linking and wind up getting a bit complicated.
Barabasi compares networks such as the Web to Hollywood to demonstrate his points. This is what I got from the reading:
– If networks as varied as the Web and Hollywood both display a power-law degree distribution then there must be some universal law responsible for it that could apply to ALL networks
– The rich get richer phenomenon could explain the power laws
– EVERYONE agrees that the Web is growing
– Despite the enormity and complexity of the web it continues to grow incrementally node by node
– If we consider Hollywood with the Web both start as small networks and then expand as time goes on.
– Most real networks share an essential feature: GROWTH
– We link to things based on our knowledge and experience of the world
– When deciding where to link on the web we follow preferential attachment: So while our individual choices are unpredictable as a group we follow strict patterns.
Hopefully next week’s readings are a little more interesting…
The Barabasi reading considered the idea of rules to explain the ‘network behind the web.’ Barabasi structured his article around Pareto’s Law known as the “80/20 rule.” That basically said that ‘four-fifths of our efforts are largely irrelevant’.
To explain this point, Barabasi used examples in management. So, 80% of profits are produced by only 20% of employees. Which to elaborate on in terms of the economy seems to say as the title of the 2nd reading does “The Rich get Richer”.
Anyway, the point of this reading wasn’t for us to examine the economy (well perhaps as a side note) but to see how the 80/20 rule can be applied to networked media. In terms of finding an exact science that has created the network, various studies have been conducted. It was hypothesized that ‘webpages are connected to each other randomly’.
Enter: The POWER Law. So basically, this power law doesn’t peak like a bell curve and implies that many small events coexist with a few large events. What they found, was that “millions of website creators work together” (perhaps inadvertently) “to generate a complex Web that defies a random universe”.
And in some way, I think this includes us as we are webpage creators of our own mediafactory sites. Together we create this network that operates the web.
The Marie-Laure Ryan reading this week was all about interactivity in narratives in the DIGITAL world.
Overall, it was really interesting and I found the reading engaging enough to gather several takeaway ideas.
The key word in this area seems to be IMMERSIVE.
Game designer Chris Crawford says digital narratives “mandate choice for the user”.
SO, interactivity seems to be the BIGGEST difference between “old” and “new” media.
But there are a few problems with working out how to be interactive in a narrative as Ryan says because narratives rely on linearity and unidirectionality of time, logic and causality. But interactivity is all about a nonlinear structure!
The key is to give users a “sense of freedom” while disguising the narrative design as an “emergent story”.
It all sounds pretty complicated, but the results definitely seem worthwhile!
It includes:
– Literary hypertext fiction
– Text based adventure games
– Interactive drama
– Single-user video games
– Multiple user online role playing games
AND finally this seems to sum it all up: “A fictional text must be stretched, skewered, and sliced if it is to exploit the freedoms and accept the responsibilities offered by hypertext technology and its new writing spaces”
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The reading this week was about “Writing as a technology”.
Bolter argues that the role of writing is for “collective memory, for preserving and passing on human experience”.
I consider myself a writer and a thinker. I look at the world around me, listening and watching out for potential stories. I use things that happen in my life as inspiration for my writing. So this definition of writing makes perfect sense.
Writing enables us to ‘arrange verbal thoughts in a visual space’. It can definitely be therapeutic, let you rip open the bottle of your pent up emotions, and encourage you to think out your problems.
And hand in hand with writing comes reading. What makes some novels absolute classics? Celebrated and remembered hundreds of years after the death of their creators?
This reading would suggest that the power of writing and words is so vast it can transcend time. Great works of literature possibly stand the test of time because they deal with important elements of the human experience that remain the same forever.
It’s encouraging to think that even though our writing technologies and publication methods are changing our writing can have an everlasting impact…