Reference List

Journals:

Scola, Nancy 2007, ‘Avatar politics: the social applications of second life’.

McArthur, Victoria 2008, ‘Real ethics in a virtual world’.

Ritzema, Tim & Harris, Billy 2008, ‘The use of second life for distance education.’

Barnes, Stuart 2007, ‘Virtual worlds as a medium for advertising.’

Takahashi, Dean 2008, ‘Terrorists in second life.’


Internet

Linden Labs 2008, ‘What is second life?’ http://secondlife.com/whatis/

Business week 2006, ‘My virtual life.’ http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982001.htm

BBC news 2007, ‘Second life ‘child abuse’ claims.’ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6638331.stm

Business week 2006, ‘The dark side of second life.’ http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2006/tc20061121_727243.htm

Moody, Glyn 2006, ‘The duplicitous inhabitants of second life.’ The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/nov/23/secondlife.web20

Assignment

Imagine a parallel world. Where you could change the way you looked to exactly what you want to look like. Where you could do exactly what you wanted to do. Where you could be anything and you’re experiences and adventures were only limited by your imagination. Since 2003 this has become a reality, a virtual world containing millions of residents from around the world. Second Life is a 3D virtual world which is an online multiplayer game. It is a fairly new technology and so is the discussion on whether it is just a game for computer geeks or a new revolution of the communication technology, myspace.com, used by businesses and entrepreneurs around the world. Being a new technology there are also many threats being identified but along with them are the several benefits the virtual world holds.

The company behind the innovative idea of Second Life is Linden Labs founded by Philip Rosedale in 1999. However the world it self has been created by the residents of the world. The vast creations of digital content include various forms of entertainment, experiences, opportunities and people from all over the globe. Residents of Second Life retain intellectual property rights in digital creations allowing them the ability to sell, buy and trade with other residents. The point of Second Life seems to be no less a real form of entertainment or personal fulfillment then collecting stamps or playing a video game. The creation of an avatar which is an animated person (or creature, depending on you design.) but mostly likely bears a striking resemblance to its creator. In other cases the avatar maybe a means for the creator to experiment and represent their identity as what they wish. It is believed that some people enter virtual realities for the simple reason of role playing and in rare cases they create an accurate virtual representation of themselves. However to participate in this online game you would require a fairly advanced graphics card and some knowledge of computer software, which limits the number of people involved. The creator of ‘The Sims’ video game says “the tools are the weak spot.” (Will Wright from businessweek.com.) However Second Life is still new and people are always cautious around new technologies. Even though Second Life hasn’t reached its full potential and its requirements of people might be limiting its numbers the fact is this virtual reality is constantly growing. “Linden Labs are constantly creating new land to keep up with the demand.” (secondlife.com). There are still million of people investing time of their real lives to play in this virtual reality

Can we really call it play? The line between play and reality seems to blur in Second Life as it is not only used for entertainment purposes but is increasingly being utilized by businesses and entrepreneurs. With creation property rights many people are into designing their own goods such as clothing for other resident avatars and selling these. Some already existing business in the real world have open up their own virtual reality to stores not only to extend there product line to the virtual world but this also plays a part in advertising for their real world products. “Evidence suggests that avatars and virtual representations have the possibility of positively influencing trust and online purchasing intention,” (Stuart Barnes, 2007.) The Second Life market place is currently supporting millions of $US in monthly transaction because the currency used in Second Life, Linden Dollars, can be exchanged at several online Linden Dollar exchanges and various other third party exchanges. There is a lot of money to be made in Second Life through many different product lines and advertising. Another branch of real life that is benefiting from the 3D communication technology is politics. In August 2006 a former Virginia governor, Mark Warner, stepped into the virtual world. Standing next to a “dwarf” and a “rotund women in a bikini” (Nancy Scola, 2007) Warner was faced with a much more raucous crowd then he would ever see in a normal campaign speech audience. With all this money to be made and all this publicity to gained through Second Life it would be naïve to say that there is no dark side to this new technology.

Like real life there are threat in Second Life to residents and their property. There was an incident not too long ago where German police were investigating Second Life after German TV news program made allegations that some residents of were trading child abuse images with in the world. The police uncovered a group and residents paying for sex with virtual children. “German Law: ‘virtual’ child pornography is punishable b up to 3 years in Jail,” (news.bbc.co.uk, 2007). Just as it is disturbing and fearful to find pedophiles and child abusers in the real world it was the same for other residents of Second Life. There was also the discovering of a software, nicknames ‘copybot’, that allowed residents to copy avatars and objects of other residents. This proved a massive problem especially for companies and residents that where selling products because their creations values were being eroded with this software. As the virtual world continuously extends residents are grappling with issues such as property ownership and personal well being. This became increasingly obvious when a worm called ‘grey goo’ attacked Second Life causing it to shutdown for a short time. The worm installed spinning objects in the virtual world and slowed down the servers. Linden Labs itself isn’t willing to be an aggressive policing institute in Second Life. Rosedale believes in self-governance, “the overriding principle is that it should run itself,” (Rosedale from Glyn Moody, 2007,) but does provide a certain amount of resources for the residents to use against crime. However the issue in Second Life can very much become a problem in the real world as seen with a terrorist bombing outside American apparel and Reebok. The perpetrators came forward as the ‘Second Life Liberation Army’. At first the public worried that real world terrorism was leaking into their virtual paradise but it is now clear that Second Life could be used as a platform for terrorists to rehearse tactics or even simply spread propaganda. “The more complex a virtual world becomes, the more it could be used for training purposes,” (Sean Kane from Dean Takashi, 2008.)

With all those issue haunting the residents of Second Life and those thinking of joining it would seem quite scary but that ‘reality.’ Just as the world cannot completely clean the world of all crime, the virtual worlds cannot delete crime from the platform. However as real world people continue with life and succeed in business and all other ventures so too do the residents of Second Life. Not only does Second Life provide venture opportunities for business and entrepreneurs but students all over the world are also utilizing Second Life as an educational tool. The New Media Consortium recently constructed a virtual university and held a survey in real life, “87% of respondents rated it 4 or 5 on a 5 point scale for simulation activities and scenario based training potential.” (Tim Ritzema & Billy Harris, 2008) Harvard also held its first class in Second Life, Rebecca Nelson speaks of its success, “Second Life really allowed us to create a sense of class community – something that develops fairly naturally in a face-to-face class but something that rarely, if ever, happens in a distance education class using previous technologies.” (Tim Ritzema & Billy Harris, 2008)
Second Life no longer seems to be a game where by players just have fun. It still requires this basic of a multiplayer online game but it has extended to be a tool used by business and entrepreneurs all around the world. The threats in this virtual world are very real but can be overcome and contained. As the virtual world extends so too should real world laws and regulations to accommodate such change. “Research ethics boards will have to start thinking virtually,” (Victoria McArthur, 2008). Second Life is not only a means of communication but of education and advertising however it seems this virtual reality gaming revolution has still not reached its peak. Second Life holds much for the future and possibly could be come what the internet is to the everyday average person.

Microsoft Word and Excel

The Microsoft Word and Excel tutorial tasks were simple and quite easy. Mostly because I went to a private college that incorporated notebook laptops in the curriculum, by which every student had their own laptop for school studies. The only problem I did find was when doing the macro exercise in Excel. This was because it was a new tool that I had never used before. I did finally manage to complete the task by trying again and following the task directions more closely. This task wasn’t extremely interesting; in fact it was absolutely boring mostly because I have already had a lot of exposure to the Microsoft software and already knew how useful the programs were.

Video Games Studies

week 8 lecture

When the word Video games is mentioned there are a number of people who picture a skinny kid, with thick glasses, who hasn’t seen day light for months, sitting in front of a massive screen clicking and punching away anxiously at a keyboard and mouse. However this stereotype is on the verge of being destroyed as the playing of video games is slowly becoming a part of normal every day life. Even I enjoy a little gaming time although I wouldn’t call my self a geek or game nerd. As gaming is being explored by many people in how it affects society and the benefits of these gaming realities the study of games is becoming more and more popular.

Video Games Studies include a number of types of games such as;

Arcade Games,

Consoles,

Computer Games,

MUDs (fantasy world populated by elves, goblins and dwarfs) and

MMOGs (multiplayer online games).

These sections of video gaming can then be even further divided into subgenres like ‘First Person Shooters’ to Adventure games.

The serious study of video gaming is a relatively new idea but has been approached from angles of discipline that do exist. Two of these angles are Narratology and Ludology. Narratology is the study of video games from the direction of being stories or literary works. Ludology, in contrast, is the study of games with out regard to the story line but rather concentrating on the Game Play elements.

eXistenZ

Director, David Cronenberg, mostly created films outside the famous spectrum of the Hollywood dazzle. His films however did gather a large audience of people interested in his depiction of horror blurred by sci-fi and a mixture of thoughts related to how the human body interacts with technology. His career began with a mixture of films such as horror classics where science experiments went wrong, media theories where screen take of the world and destroy humanity and films exploring a number of other theories.

In his movie, eXistenZ, he explores the connection between technology and most particularly gaming and how it connects to the human body and the relationship with our minds. This game of eXistenZ what basically like an alternate reality. Something like today’s epidemic of second life. In eXistenZ the people were directly connected to the game pod. People actually had a plug insert in their spine called a Bio port. The movie begins with what seems to be a promotion for a young designer, Alegra, and her new game. The game is mixture of small missions where the objective is mostly unknown there is the usual killing and discovering of objects. As the game unravels it becomes confusing for the players to distinguish between reality and the game world. At the end of the movie you discovered that the players we in the game right from the very start. The whole story line of Alegra being the designer of the game and running from an organisation trying to destroy her game pod was the actually game. In the end Alegra is the killer against the games.

It was a complicated film that had to be followed carefully in order to understand exactly what was going on but it was an extremely interesting play on reality and the game world and a weird way of showing the relationship between technology and the human body.

Birth of computers and the internet

During the early evolution of the computer there were three main people that envisioned such a thing as a computer. This first computer was designed to calculated complex mathematic equations and print mathematical tables. Charles Babbage was the brains behind this Difference Engine, as it was called. He is considered the inventor of the first digital computer. Although he created parts for the Difference Engine, due to a lack of government funding it was not completed in his life time. Babbage also envisioned the Analytical Engine; a massive, steam powered, mechanical computer. Ada Byron is also another important person in the evolution of the computer. She aided Babbage with his ideas on the Analytical machine and her self conceived of a machine that could play music and produce graphics and be of everyday use. The first computer program is also credited to Ada. Alan Turing, was the man responsible for the serious work related to the mathematics and cryptography in the development of the computer.

The very first computers were large expensive machines only used for military, government and corporate work and were mass produced by IBM. However computers became smaller, quicker and less expensive at an exponential rate. In 1965 a man by the name Gordon Moore proposed the Moores law; the capacity of microchips doubles every two years. Another law conceived by Moore claims capital costs are rising faster then revenues thus leading to a limited rate of technological development.

The mouse, graphical user interface and pull down menus where concepts developed by Xerox PARC in their pursuit to make computers usable by the general public. In 1975 the first PC was released. It was an exciting revelation but it was still the beginning and these computers had one major flaw, there was no common language or set of terms to enable easy communication between the users and their computers. This is where the famous Bill Gates steps in; he wrote a language called BASIC for the Altair so that it could be used for general applications such as word processing, basic accounting and a few games. This was the start of Microsoft. Nerds, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, started their own company; Apple. The first machine they produced had a single circuit board, no case and no keyboard. It sold for $USA666.60. Their combined dream was to create small home computers that were for people interested in programs and what they could do instead of the tech and hardware side of the machines.

At this point in development IBM was still lagging a bit behind. They were still selling big computers to big businesses when they realised there was something in the sale of personal computers for the general public. IBM relied on “open architecture”, which involved the buying of shelf products form a broad variety of different companies and selling them together as a package. The hardware was not the problem now, the software was. Bill Gates was then approached by IBM and he promised them he would find an Operating System. Gates contacted a man by the name Tim Patterson who has created an Operating System that was basically a rip off of Kildalls’. IBM has also approached Kildall for an Operating System but he and his partner refused to sign a non-disclosure statement before conducting a meeting. So Gates bought the Operating System off Patterson and basically started making his money. So IBM gained more and more market shares mostly due to its relations with the software giant Microsoft.

The internet is basically a network of networks. These networks are made up of servers, mainframes, personal computers and many other devices that use computer mediated communications technology (CMC). These items are all loosely connected to the telephone system and in recent years have become connected to broad-band cable and satellite services. The US Federal Networking Council decided on this definition of internet in 1995;

• (i) is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons;
• (ii)is able to support communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, and/or other IP-compatible protocols; and
• (iii) provides, uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately, high level services layered on the communications and related infrastructure described herein.

Some people maybe stumped when you ask them; what is the difference between the World Wide Web and the internet? They may even believe that you’re talking about the same thing. However the web is only an application of the internet.

There is also much confusion when trying to specifically define cyber space. A commonly understood definition would be that cyber space is a conceptual space where words, relationships, data, wealth and power are manifested by people using Computer Mediated Communications technology.

Email as we all know was one of the earliest used of the internet. The direct downloading or uploading of files from you computer to another computer is called File Transfer Protocol. In the 1990’s IRC (Internet Relay Chat) became extremely popular as one of the first applications that allowed people all over the world to type a real time conversations. More recent internet applications that many people are probably familiar with are; Instant Messaging, peer-to-peer file sharing, portable audio and podcasting, VoIP and Voice chat.

Benjamin Walter

week 5

To a common audience art is colourful paint brushed onto a canvass in order to create a beautiful image. However I don’t particularly agree I think that even with out a paint brush and canvass many of us can create our own pieces of artwork. To me art is anything that you can produce that has an effect on someone. That encourages thoughts or displays a story. I’m not suggesting that professional artists don’t create pieces that are awe inspiring and quite powerful but as the world is constantly changing especially in the way we communicate such as through the internet there are more opportunities for people to express them selves through their versions of art. I think art can be defined only by those that create it. If someone digitally produces a video that they feel is art because they have constructed it to impose emotions on an audience then it is art. Art can be found in music, simple drawings or even in the editing of reality, such as photo manipulation.

Authentic means not false or copied. If a photo image is imported into photo shop then it is a copy of the original thus making it unauthentic. Photo shop is generally used to edited and manipulate images and if an image is changed from its original then it is no longer the authentic photo or image that was originally produced.

Walter Benjamin had a belief that art work inferred an experience of awe for those who viewed it but he also believed that mechanical reproductions destroyed this awe in art. However I personally find that his definition of art is quite cold. I think that any thing created with passion and emotion and visual appeal that infers emotions in another person is art. To me that’s art work of an aura. Also mechanical reproduction like photo shopping images can also be creating art. A photograph that has been filled with emotion and a story also has an aura and thus is a work of art.