Content Sharing

Lets see if I can concisely sum my learning experience up for this portion of the unit...

There seemed to be a heavy focus (in discussions and I suppose within our materials) on Copyright (C), and the online solution Creative Commons (CC), and I suppose rightfully so. After all the Web has made it incredibly easy to share music, files, images, video and many other 'creative works' - but is this really new?

Going back to the good old days when we bought our music on record or tape. Did we not all tape a copy for a friend at some stage? Even taping music from the radio before it was even released. Isn't this too a form of 'theft'?

Moving to the modern day - radio stations are not allowed to include music tracks in their podcasts, but if we look at dj's who mix and 'mashup' several tracks to effectively create a something reasonably new why is this not ok to share (via podcast) if no one is profiting from it but they are allowed to broadcast it? How and where is the line drawn?

Also has C and CC gone too far? People taking photos of artwork for example and then putting a CC on it. Or C now having the ability to outlive the creator, preventing anyone from using it.

You can't help but wonder that the world has gone mad and that these large corporations that enforce C are just getting greedy - especially if you kind of think in some way that (as our lecturer has pointed out) there is no such thing really as original thought - it is all conceived by things around us that we experience (see, hear, do) that then helps us form the thought coherently, and in some cases express it uniquely.

It is nice to see that mashups are considered within 'fair use' but I think perhaps more needs to bee done to strip large corporations from their power and bring them back on an even playing field. We need a digital revolution to bring everything into the 21st Century (2.0).

Social Networking

How much time do people spend on social networking site? Has it become their main form of interaction with people or does it just nuture their relationships? Prior to taking this unit I was quite alarmed when I realised just how much time people seem to spend on SNS.

My concern is of course skewed as I do not use my mobile phone to send updates to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other site. This might just be because I don't have Apps to make it easy, or because when something does happen (however major or minor) my first thought isn't OMG I have to share this with someone - and quickly!

Take for example last week. I am 95% sure I saw Michael Keating (you know Batman and BeatleJuice) on the street. I know this seems unlikely as I live in Melbourne and one first thought is what is he doing here? Did I not share this because I would feel silly (obviously not otherwise I wouldn't have put it here) or because sharing a post/tweet/status that said "OMG I think I just saw Michael Keating on the cnr of King & Williams st Melb" would not be as meaningful or have the same impact if I had to get back to my laptop at work to share this?

Another one of my gripes with SNS is not only the pressure one feels about accepting (or most often the wish to be able to ignore/reject) friend type requests (of people you know of course). Whether its colleagues wanting to join your LinkedIn network or a friend of a friend (or their boyfriend) making a facebook friend request say no is hard because you see these people in real life. The implications of accepting these 'lose' friendship ties becomes messy if for example your friend breaks up with the boyfriend or if you want to pursue other opportunities through LinkedIn and colleagues or managers have access to that kind of activity.

Funnily enough, when we go back to the carton from our lecture, nobody knows your a dog on the internet, it reminds me how easy it is to forget at times that certain behaviours online can't be hidden from certain people in a network for just that period of time, as you might do in real life. As much as SNS can help as engage more with our friends online it can also put a strain on them if we're not mindful of our actions and how visible they are all the time.

Time to get reflective (and catch up)...

I went on a lovely two week holiday right in the middle of this unit and it has come back to bite me, and now I think its gone all festy and pussy (not as in meow).

The dilemma is that my husband was mortified when he found out that I was taking my laptop on holiday to do my assignment. He convinced me to get an extension (which I did successfully) but now I am more than my two weeks behind (as you can see) as I not only had to write my essay in a week when I returned (and still have no grade on it to help my correct my errors for assignment 3) but I am trying very hard to catch up with my blog and activities/discussions on blackboard without getting much feedback for it (as most people have moved on to the last two topics).

Well after I write my reflections for Content Sharing I'll be up to module 3 and feeling a little better. Then I'll just have 3 modules to catch up on (instead of 5), finish my web presence, write my exegesis and then start on assignment 4 all in just two weeks. And with working full time and having to young kids I am not sure how I will manage but will try my best.

Enough rantings now on time to reflect on 2.4 Content Sharing.