Lecture 1 - I-Lecture: Revision of Lecture One - What was that all about?

Comments on Lecture:
The way music technology changed over time (post WWII):
1950s - 7" Single
1960s - 12" Albums
1970s - Cassette Tapes
1980 - Compact Discs (CDs)
1990 - Internet/CD-ROMs (Read Only Memory)
2000 - MP3

How the development canged Industry

'Home Taping is killing Music - Home Sewing is killing Fashion'

File Sharing (Napster)
A whole community illegally downloading music

Bands and labels that use the Internet to get in contact with fans and profile themselves in the community (on Facebook: Raveonettes, Kranky...). Others on MySpace... Cee-Lo Green, Gnarls Barkley: research them. (Grey Album) Power of the people, fighting for the band.

Majors loose of control over production and re-production

What are mashups (e.g. the video of the grey album)

Music is now portable and digital - anytime, anywhere. Copying is possible without loss.

Majors still control
Access to radio (Are listeners interested in radio?)
Concert Veues (Do people still go, do bands still tour?)
Money (How do they control the money?)

Power:
Does Music Industry still have the power?
Did the Intenret disrupt that?

Economy:
Production and re-production
Distribution
Ownership of Information?
Ownership on the Internet is basically diffeent from RL: If I talke your apple, I have the apple and you have none. If I take your MP3, you ahve a copy and I have one too. Taking and duplicating are the same.
Production and distribution of own music is much simpler overthe Internet (research)
Ownership and Copyright in Second Life???

Community:
Community in Music
You can actually talk to the musicians and to peopel around the music industry online. In the seventies you wrote a letter to a fan club and were happy when you were een recognised witha response to your letter.
Being a fan was much more about dressing like your favourite band and belonging to a certain community - like Glamrck, Punk, Popper, Rocker, Greaser etc.
These groups still exist, but it seems like it is no longer very important to define yourself by looking like your idol.

Brings us to Identity:
Music defines us. We relate it to things that happened in our lives.
Hiding your identity is important when downloading music illegally from the Internet. Anonymity enables a whole lot of file sharing that affects the music industry.
People try to sell a wole lot of stuff based on our identrity. Facebook basically does nothing else, but to try to make us engage in online games to find out about our preferences, what we like and what we don't like. Amazon makes suggestions based on what I bought before or on what others bought who also bought something that I am thinking of buying.

Assignment 2 - Recommended Readings (Music)

he Pop-Pickers Have Picked Decentralised Media: the Fall of Top of the Pops and the Rise of the Second Media Age

by David Beer
University of York

Sociological Research Online, Volume 11, Issue 3,
.

From the Abstract: This second media age is defined by the emergence of decentralised and multidimensional media structures that usurp the broadcast models of the first media age. This article argues that the decommissioning of Top of the Pops, and the ongoing expansion of 'social networking' sites such as MySpace and Bebo, illustrates the movement from a first to a second media age. In light of these transformations I suggest here that there is a pressing need to develop new research initiatives and strategies that critically examine these new digitalised forms of musical appropriation.

The real reason for TOTP to be taken off the BBC program schedule:

2.3 Achieving its highest viewing figures during the 1970s when 'audience figures regularly reached 16 million' (The Museum of Broadcast Communications, n.d.) it has been reported that, leading up to its decommissioning, TOTP audience figures fell from 'nearly 7 million to around 1 million' (Byrne, 2006: 3). The BBC have directly connected this fall in TOTP's viewing figures with the rise of digital technologies and transformations in music consumption. A BBC statement on the issue claimed that:

'Over recent years the show has faced ever increasing competition from multimedia and niche musical outlets which enable viewers to consume music of their choice any time night or day in a way that Top of the Pops simply can't deliver in its current weekly format' ('BBC spokesman', Telegraph.co.uk, 2006)

From 2.6: Whether we agree with the BBC's appraisal that these alternative media streams have directly caused the fall of TOTP or not, it is worth considering what appears to be a large scale and significant uptake of decentralised media opportunities, particularly as these become embedded into everyday cultural routines. Indeed, it is possible here to use the fall of TOTP as illustrative of broader transformations in how people are appropriating music in their everyday lives, or, indeed, how popular culture is reorganising itself around the affordances of a range of new information and communication technologies (ICTs)^[4].

Crucial Point:
3.2 The crucial point here is that musical artefacts and music reproduction and collecting practices have, to varying degrees, been reconfigured in the movement from physical discs to digitally compressed virtual music files. This transformation, when allied with the interactive potential of the internet has radical consequences. A striking example of this transformation in music appropriation practices in the face of digtialisation is illustrated by the recent number one single 'Crazy' by Gnarls Barkley, which, during the early summer of 2006, reached number one in its first week of release solely through internet downloads (and before the release of the physical CD format).

Summing up the difference between web 1 (the old web) and web 2.0:
'[the user] can do a lot of the usual internet things on their Bebo homepages like uploading music, videos and photos, and updating their blog, but for the first time they can do it all in one place…so imagine the possibilities if anyone of any age could create their own webpage for free, and include in it almost everything that turned them on; and imagine if they were instantly linked to everyone else.' (Garfield, 2006:6)
These networked sites are used to display personal photographs, to provide links to favourite music, performers, film, and television sites, to update journal entries, to communicate with other users, and to build up social networks of 'friends' around shared interests, and even, in some instances, to arrange actual meetings (Garfield, 2006). Here we see virtual and actual communities enmeshing in everyday life practices, thus further undermining any notion that we may keep these as distinct spheres in sociological research.
Reference:
GARFIELD, S. (2006) 'How to make 80 million friends and influence people', The Observer Review, 18^th June, 2006.

Excursion as for the above: Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0:
What Is Web 2.0 - Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software by Tim O'Reilly
09/30/2005

Question: Why did Myspace loose so many users?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/29/myspace-facebook-bebo-twitter
referencing on...
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/stats/1716726/facebook-doubles-audience-year-year-myspace-continues-decline

Mark Poster on himself (Digest 17, Simon Fraser University, Canada)

D: Where do you think our new media are taking us? Which trends do you see unfolding?

MP: Well, for me, two trends are important. First, new relations between humans and information machines. It’s increasingly difficult to regard the machine as a simple tool that does what you want it to because it’s so complicated and has its own dynamics that are so powerful and interesting.

That’s one major direction. The other is in relation to globalization. The Internet is not a nation state kind of thing but it is a global network. As international capitalism creates this push toward globalization at the communication level - at the level of culture - the Internet provides a way of exploring possibilities of globalization that do not necessarily go along with economic tendencies of globalization.

D: What has surprised you about the field since you began?
...The third thing is probably the demography of who is doing this stuff, and the fact that it’s probably for the first time in human history that young people are having a major impact on the development of this technology. There is nothing like this that, as an historian, I can even remotely connect to it. Most of the original features of the Internet were developed by people like graduate students.

Reference: LeNeve, A. (2006). Digest interviews Mark Poster . Digest 17, School of Communication community at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Retrieved September 28th, 2010 from http://neuf.cprost.sfu.ca/digest/digests/digest-17/digest-interviews-mark-poster

3.11 Poster's prediction, back in the mid 1990s, was that a 'second age of mass media [was] on the horizon.' (Poster, 1996: 3). For Poster, this was a transition that would ultimately result in the collapse of the boundaries between the previously distinct categories of producer, distributor, and consumer. This suggested collapse of categories, as a consequence of the incorporation of digital technologies, has now emerged as a theme across a range of works into contemporary music and contemporary music culture (Théberge, 1997; Taylor, 2001; Beer, 2005). The fall of TOTP, and the emergence of the social networking phenomenon, may be understood as further evidence of the shift toward, or even the realisation of, a second media age.

Rather this shift toward decentralised media, exemplified by music file-sharing and the multidimensional communities of the social networking phenomena, is implicated by the technologies and cultural practices of the preceding era. Indeed, it would be a mistake to think of the new digitalised media as distinct from the analogue, to talk of media ages is not a attempt to reproduce 'a binary logic' (Poster, 1996: 21).

The challenges of 'social networking'

...on Music:
4.11 This type of research project needs to fit into an ongoing programme that explores how digitalisation, as an ongoing social process, is not only transforming how people consume or relate to music, but also, on the other side of the coin, how the music industry is becoming fluid, morphing (Sandywell & Beer, 2005), and reconfiguring itself through these new media infrastructures and marketing rhetoric, in order to capture, protect and maintain its revenue streams (Jones, 2000; Breen & Forde, 2004; Leyshon, et.al., 2005;Hesmondhalgh, 2006)^[10]. This requires analytical strategies that attempt to understand how the music industry is reflexively theorising and re-theorising its own practices, musical artefacts, and the everyday practices of music production, reproduction and appropriation (Thrift, 1997 & 2005).

Assignment 2 - I-Lecture: Essay Writing and Perspective

Comments:
From the topics discussed in Lecture 1, take your favourite and discuss it as follows:
The way in which every day life and Internet is interlaced and how one affects the other
Social change on the Internet
Ways in which everyday life and the Internet may NOT be interlaced (minor and optional, but good for balance. Don't put too much emphasis on this - the focus is on the contrary of NOT.

Use the outline of Module one (incorrectly numbered 1.1) to find an analytical approach on the topic of choice. Particularly the introduction and Study Guide.

The essence of an essay is a set of assumptions. The key about assignments is having a brief moment where you spread out these assumptions prior to starting on the essay. Present them to critique. These are the foundations for my thesis.

Use the patterns you have recognised running through the topics of module 1.

NOTE!! Read the stuff presented on Blackboard at Net102 about essay writing. It will be recognised in your work.

1. Personal experience - where you are encouraged to value, but critically assess, the way you see issues and events from your own experience and individual contexts.
2. Public debate and discourse - where we look at how events and issues are reported, made 'public', in ways that transform the 'experiences' into material that reflects discursive norms and expectations
3. Academic critique - where we are to explore assumptions, not take things for granted, to look beyond both the 'I' of personal experience and the 'we' of normative society (the first 2 perspectives)

Take this into account and use it to plan the essay before actually writing it.

Introduction: Topic & context, thesis - 'I think that...', '...my opinion is that...' Underline with two or three major points.

Middle section with paragraphs each supporting and explaining the statements I made in the introduction. Start with a claim supporting one of the points made in the introduction. Then provide examples and explanations to support this point. Organise in the same sequence as tghe broader points made in the introduction.


State what makes you think this is - supporting my argument. Link to the thesis.

Conclusion: Should be almost a mirror image of the introduction. Restate the thesis. A projection of the future is not expected in a University Essay!


Hint on paraphrasing:
Dunn & Bradshaw (1997) said that ......
It was Abe Lincoln (1887) who first stated that...

Paraphrasing on material that has been cited in other sources:
Dunn & Bradshaw (cited in Livingstone 2001) said that...
It was Abe Licoln (cited in Williams 1960) who first stated that...

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them!

Not using an introduction in which you briefly lay out for the reader what your main conclusions are, how you will demonstrate why you believe them, and engage the reader’s attention.
Solution: write the introduction last, once you know exactly what it is you argue and conclude, and when the essay is finished, make sure the first paragraph is an introduction to YOUR essay!

Not being consistent throughout the essay in their approach, views and arguments
Solution: go back over your work to make sure you haven’t changed your mind halfway through.

Writing ‘sweeping generalisations’ that, very easily, can be shown to be incorrect (for example ‘These days, it’s easy for everyone to access to the Internet via the World Wide Web’)
Solution: be more precise and careful in how you write; add qualifiers to such generalisations (The WWW has made it easier for many people in Australia to access the Internet). Back up your claims with referenced examples, or supporting evidence.

Not giving reasons for claims ( example ‘The WWW has made it easier for many people in Australia to access the Internet’)
Solution: write to make your point and back it up (‘The WWW has made it easier for many people in Australia to access the Internet because it requires much less technical sophistication than previous Internet applications’

Apostrophes
Solution: never write “it’s”. If you mean “it is” then write “it is”; if you mean “of it” then write “its”. “It’s cold today = It is cold today”; “The cost of its operation… = The cost of the operation of it…”

Not referencing properly because they either (a) use the words of someone else and don’t acknowledge it (cheating) or (b) don’t realise that, even if they are not quoting exactly, they still need to reference where they got the idea from.
Solution: whether you quote exactly or simply use the ideas from somewhere else, reference: provide details of the book/ article and the page number if appropriate in the body of the essay NOT just in a bibliography

Not using signposts, and thus the essay moves from one point to the next with no sense, to the reader, that it is connected.
Solution: Include short phrases and words that create a ‘flow’ between and within paragraphs (ie, “Given the problem just outlined, it is important also to consider…”). The reader needs to be told where they are going and why.

Relatedly, paragraphs that are too long, too short, not clearly relevant.
Revisit Dawson's powerpoint on paragraphing, and also work through this site on Constructing Effective Paragraphs.

Not including a conclusion that ties your essay together.
Solution: go over your essay making sure your argument is clear. Then reassert this in your conclusion explaining briefly what it is that you have done/what is the answer to the question.

Assignment 2 - Essay 1:

Source
Senate Hearing

Lecture 1 - 1.1, Assignment - I Want My MP3

I used Last.fm after I was told in another subject to register at different online offers.

Before that I worked for the radio station of Swinburne University (Swinburne, 2010) and put a weekly two hour program together, which recalled the history of independent pop-music. For the purpose of research I spent a lot of time on the Web to find out about the history of artists, labels, producers and composers. So, instead of going to one single spot claiming to have it all, I browsed around the web to find databases and websites dedicated to music and run by lovers of music.

The last place I would have thought of was something like Last.fm.

Why is that so? I have mixed experiences with Last.fm. The platform definitely helps members to find like minded people in terms of taste. But when it comes to servicing your taste and it’s a little off mainstream you realize they cannot deliver. E.g. when I ask for Red Lorry Yellow Lorry Radio, I expect to hear Red Lorry Yellow Lorry Tunes. Instead Last.fm delivers what they thing would be appropriate to fit in with the style of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. As a result you end up with another genre mix that might randomly have one or the other track of the above band included.

A strong point of Last.fm is the ability to search for artists, who try to use Last.fm for their purposes and upload their tracks. It is a great way to explore unheard music.

Another strong point is the plug-in called Scrobbler that enables Last.fm users to upload their I-tunes track lists to Last.fm. This is a convenient way to enhances the library of music available to the user and also provides a greater variety of suggestions that might fit the listeners taste.

But coming back to my initial point I have to say that I hardly ever use Last.fm. My experience is that more and more music enthusiasts upload scarce videos from the beginning of the music video era, as well as recordings that never made it on the TV screen. To explore music artists, I found allmusic.com (Rovi Corporation, 2010) very helpful as it includes blogs and latest news, all without having to register or to login. Further there is Discogs (Zink Media, 2010) much more helpful and organized than last.fm, especially when seeking interesting music. Discogs is organized similar to Wikipedia. Although registration is mandatory to be able to participate in contributing and commenting, actually seeking the database for music released on any kind of media is straight forward.

I think the expectation for CMEs like Last.fm depends on the purpose of the user. I regard myself as a music collector and as such I like to browse for specialties. Nut if you want random selections made for you to fit some sort of mood, then Last.fm might be a great space for you.

References

Rovi Corporation (2010). Allmusic. Retrieved September 23^rd, 2010 from: http://www.allmusic.com/

Swinburne University of Technology (2010). 3SSR. Retrieved September 23^rd, 2010 from: http://3ssr.org/

Zink Media (2010). Discogs Music Database. Retrieved September 23^rd, 2010 from: http://www.discogs.com/

Lecture 1 - 1.5 I-Assignment: How has the internet been used to resist or counteract religious persecution and human rights abuse?

Maria Hsia Chang claims in an ABC Radio interview (Kohn, 2005), that Falun Gong (Law Wheel Cultivation)or Falun Dafa (Great Law of the Wheel) actually started as a Chi Gong group. Chi Gong has roots in pre-historic Chinese times.

Before the crackdown on Falun Gong in July 2000, the movement was even joined by members of the communist party. Some of them, like Jennifer Zeng, were sentenced to re-education camps to put them back on track with traditional beliefs, the way the Chinese communist party saw the world.

What really started the problem was that communist beliefs have survived after the death of Mao in the Chinese communist party, which still rules the country today. While the movement first attracted Chinese government as it would help increase health in China’s society, religious beliefs took influence and inflated Falun Gong with the addition of quite an eclectic mix of beliefs, among them the existence of UFOs.

Anyway, the fundamental belief is about a wheel that is placed in your abdomen by a Falun Gong leader from a different dimension. Obviously, this belief and the practice of Falun Gong seems to help people cure severe illnesses without medical treatment as we know it (doctors, pills and potions).

Although Falun Gong claims to be a peaceful movement they openly critisise the Chinese communist party and actively support Chinese in resigning from it (Yuxin, 2005). Interestingly the movement has a great following although it doesn’t seem to be organized like traditional churches., There is no membership and all activities are conducted by volunteers.

The movement has spread into several countries around the world and is seen there as a peaceful meditative movement. The numbers of people settled in Western Culture, attracted by Falun Gong seems to increase too. These people openly support the fight of Falun Gong to be accepted in China. This also increases the international popularity of Falun Gong on the Internet, where people openly discuss Falun Gong and related topics in several blogs. For further information look at: http://www.blogtoplist.com/rss/falun-dafa.html.

References

Kohn, R. (2005, May 8^th). What’s Wrong with Falun Gong? The Spirit of Things, Radio National. Retrieved September 22^nd, 2010, from: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/relig/spirit/stories/s1358518.htm

Yuxin, W. (2005, April 29). Quitting the CCP: Ten Thousand People Gather to Support One Million Resignations from the Party. The Epoch Times. Retrieved September 22th, 2010, From: http://en.epochtimes.com/news/5-4-29/28302.html

Man, J. (2003). The Gutenberg Revolution: The Story of a Genius and an Invention That Changed the World. Headline Review. London, UK.

Lecture 1 - 1.5 I-Lecture: Faith, Religion and the Internet

Lecture delivered by Mike Kent

Interesting point: For religious communities, the Internet is an outreach programme.

Definition, Religion online:
Using the Internet to provide services and information. When you want to know, e.g. when your church service is on.

Definition, Online Religion:
Practicing your religious devotion online.

Remark about the Gutenberg bibles: there are actually 48 (singles and complete double volumes) examples remaining today, after these bibles were initially printed in the mid-fifteenhundrets. German quality...

This was the start of commercial printing, handing out new examples in editions rather than one-by-one, each hand written. As a result some control went out of the hands of the church. It was no secret knowledge for a chosen few anymore. However, it was still the latin version and latin was the language of the church and high society.

I wonder if the turmoil going on with translating the bible into English and the harsh punishment that followed these actions initiated the epoche of enlightenment, also known as modernity.
The killing of William Tyndale (a reformist, challenging religious authority by making a book with a secret code inaaccessible toi the majority readable) happened in 1536, about 150 years before the brake of the Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason.

Today Religious authority is challenged again. This time reform seems to come through the Internet. The Internet can be a challenge for traditional authority. We have seen this with journalism and we have seen it with politics.

PIU The Pink Invisible Unicorn - great atheism ironie

...and by the way - some believe creation wasn't made through God - it was the flying Spaghetti Monster (lol).

Lecture 1 - 1.6 Discussion Board: Democracy and political participation

Question:

Does the Internet encourage democracy and political participation? Why/why not?

As well as the recent online campaign activities, there are additional forms of political participation on the Internet. A few ideas you might like to think about in this discussion are:

• youtube parodies (Remember Obama girl? Tina Fey's Sarah Palin impression or "The Abbott Family"?)
  
• blogs and wikis discussing political positions from the "tea party" to anarchists
• blogs and wikis lobbying for a single issue
• citizen journalists
• cyberactivism/culture jamming

Answer:

I see parallels between online journalism and online politics. The basic ingredient is many-to-many rather than one-to-many communication. Instead of being forced to eat what you are served, you may chose to question or even challenge what you’re supposed to eat.

Listening to Mike Kent’s E-Lecture on Politics and Online Participatory Culture (Kent, 2010), I think that Australian politicians still don’t realize the potential of Web 2.0 tools. What convinces me is that engaging with voters over Twitter, Facebook and Youtube has not been used well during election and dropped dramatically afterwards. I ask myself if this was all just, as Mike describes it, a gimmick? Our fellow student Sarah Rowlands (Rowlands, 2010) describes a situation in which she tried to ask Tony Abbott a few questions on his own web page (http://www.tonyabbott.com.au/ContactTony.aspx). He obviously never replied to her questions.

My impression is that the many-to-many concept we find on the Web does not jar with the traditional concept of leadership from a politician’s point of view. In blogs, chat-rooms, on Websites and in Social Networks people constantly engage upon topics, one of them politics. People talk back and criticize openly and directly, because these tools give them enhanced means of communication that was not there for earlier generations. Spawning from these abilities are gate keeping and citizen journalism. As a result journalism needs to be aware that it cannot just come up with a story the way they would like to have it. Gate Keepers might fire back at them, resulting in loss of credibility, when it turns out that an article was misleading or simply wrong. For me Gate Keepers also play a crucial role in modern politics, digging deeper when they smell a rat. This to me is true democracy. People are realizing that they have a voice that can be powerful.

To effectively debate topics online, I think it would be a great idea to make people aware of the fact, that everybody can have an opinion on anything; but to influence, you have to be accountable. This is where the most important invention since the wheel comes into place – the hyperlink. Before the hyperlink it was terribly hard to proof your thesis. You had to convince critics to go to the library and look up what you refer to. Sometimes these publications were hard to come by. Today you simply refer to an e-reserve, another Website, a database or any other digital source that can be accessed by mouse click.

Maybe it would make sense to teach online debate in school?

References

Kent, M. (2010, August 31). Politics and Participatory Culture. Retrieved September 21^st, 2010 from: http://dbs.ilectures.curtin.edu.au/lectopia/lectopia.lasso?ut=3152#

Rowlands, S. (2010, September 21). Recent Election & The Internet. Curtin University Discussion Board, Net102, Topic 1.6. Retrieved September 22^nd, 2010 from: http://lms.curtin.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&forum_id=_135429_1&course_id=_40432_1&nav=group_forum&conf_id=_67255_1&group_id=_37134_1&message_id=_1764306_1

Lecture 1 - 1.6: E-Lecture Politics and Online Participatory Culture

Lecture by Mike Kent

Similarities between Kevin Rudd (Kevin 07) and Barrack Obama, using the Internet for their election.

Link refered to in the lecture:
The Election Downfall

Interestingly the video was taken down due to allegations of copyright breach, but put back on a few days later as it falls under satire.

Like with many other things, the Internet as we know it today provides a many-to-many rather than a one-to-many communication. About journalism, Internet users share opinions upon stories or add/contribute to topics (citizen journalism), either supporting credibility or undermining it (Gatewatching). In politics there are similarities: Voters are engaged in opinion making, discussions and commenting on what the actual politican has to say, e.g. #election on Twitter. Citizen journalists use basically every possible means of media available on the Internet to put their activities forward (YouTube, Flickr, Blogs, Twitter...).

Very short and sweet (0:26) explanation on Citizen Journalism.

An example of putting a picture right (after false evidence has been given):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/apr/08/ian-tomlinson-death-video-twitter

Statement: The Obama election was funded through an enormous number of people donating a small amount of money ratherthan a few rich people donating the major amount.

Comment: Thinking about this fact (I had no idea of), Obama must have been the man of the people rather than the puppet of a few influential people trying to buy influence by donating. I wonder if he was/is aware of this. As it seems, more and more US Americans are turning their back on him as he doesn't seem to come up with reform quickly enough. I also wonder why this is the case. Compared to his predecessors he must be unusually free from pressure from the lobbyists and the force of peope who would have bought him with their money during election.

Obama Girl singing Crush on Obama (not controlled by the election administration) watched over 19,000,000 times as of 21 September 2010. Cannot see anything controversal about it. It definitely supports Obama.

Flashmob Activity:
'Target ain't people so why should it be that they can play around with our democracy?'
This video was posted on YouTube by the MoveOn Organisation. It is a protest against the US American supreme court rule that corporations can spend unlimited money on elections. In July the Gouvernour of Minnesota (claimed to be anti-gay and anti-worker) was given $ 150,000.- by Target.

Anyway, it would have been helpful to get some evidence for these claims.(Reference anybody?)

Comment on the Slide, What Happened to Social Media?
I think nothing has happened to Social Media. It is still up and running. The way that politicians used it during the election campaign and then not using it at all afterwards tells me that they were told to be funky and cool by using all this new media stuff, but they didn't understand the impact it has, when used properly. Definitely not using it properly is to just let it go, after election. To me it feels like, 'great, dear voters, that you bought the coolness and voted. Now back to bed and see you in three years time...' I think that is a massive let down for the people who supported these candidates during election.

New Players on the political stage:
MoveOn.Org
GetUp.Org.Au (350,000 members - more than all political parties put together)
The Teaparty is a new movement from the US, decentralised Internet enables movement (no actual website)

Funny: Taiwanese educational video on the Australian election:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ_s6V1Kv6A

Lecture 1 - 1.4: Assignment Question - Personal experience of E-Health online

Only recently I had a strange condition. On a Monday night after going to the Gym, my wife and I had a Falafel wrap for dinner. We sat in front of the TV and I suddenly felt a strange itch at a joint below one of my small toes on the left foot. It was soon followed by a similar itch on the outer rim of my right foot. Walking over to the fridge it felt like having small pillows between my feet and the carpet. I didn’t really take much notice and went to bed later that night.

Next morning there was a strange tension on the skin of my feet and looking at them I realized that they had swollen dramatically over night. On top of that my left middle finger started to feel numb too.

To cut a long story short, on Tuesday evening both my hands and feet were like balloons. I could neither walk nor grab anything, but otherwise I was fine. No rashes, no itching, no swollen tongue, fever or any other symptoms.

As it was already too late again to go to the doctor, I went on the Web for the first time in my life to try and find out about my condition.

My experience was daunting. I could find all sorts of recommendations and maybes and possibilities. It was all very unspecific stuff or forum threads, where people went off topic, to discuss something completely different. After about an hour of poking my stiff fingers at the key board I gave up, being more confused than before.

I can imagine that it may be wise under certain circumstances to seek help online, but my experience tells me that you will need the guidance of at least a general practitioner to point you into the right direction. I would never attempt self treatment just because of a hint I received from a website.

Things might change dramatically when Australia will honestly attempt to build the National Broadband Network (NBN) (Conroy, 2009). Especially in rural areas E-health (Eysenbach, 2001) can be of great help to the population of Australia. In some places doctors might be hours away. Getting online and seeking immediate advice and guidance might be life saving under certain circumstances. However, it takes more than a random intermediated website to provide quick and efficient help.

I can imagine well trained nurses to work on patients under guidance and observation, by means of a high speed Internet connection, in rural areas of Australia. At the same time general practitioners could maintain network relations with specialists. Unusual cases, requiring specific knowledge that goes beyond the capacities of a general practitioner, connections could quickly be established to add further helpful advice to an urgent case.

Coming back to the Falafel and the strange reaction in my extremities, we first thought it was an allergic reaction to the food (additives possibly). However my general practitioner couldn’t read the symptoms either. He provided me with a pack of histamines and the swelling was gone by the end of the week.

References

Conroy, Senator the Hon. Stephen (2009, April 7th). New National Broadband Network. Media Release, Canberra Press Office. Retrieved September 20th, 2010 from: http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2009/022

Eysenbach, Gunther (2001, March). What is e-health? Journal of Medical Internet Research, Vol 3 No. 2 2001. (J Med Internet Res 2001;3(2):e20) doi:10.2196/jmir.3.2.e20. Retrieved September 20th, 2010 from: http://www.jmir.org/2001/2/e20/

Lecture 1 - 1.4: E-Lecture Health, What My Doctor Didn't Tell Me

Mike Kent E-Lecture about Health online

People are linked here through a Trust of Identity

Changing models of access to health online:

Intermediate:
A CME that provides a platform where people who seek can go and people who can give advice will respond to.

Disintermediate:
This is interaction without the intermediate. The contact is direct between advice seeker and advice giver.

Apomediation:
Participatory medicine

The issue of Trust
I think the question of trust in dealing e.g. with a doctor online is quite significant. Although I hate the idea of controllin everyone and everything, I am convinced that it is crucial to establish a control panel that will supervise the way that the Web is used for the treatment of patients. I belive that this is the harest part in establishing a functional E-health system.

Listening to Mike Kent's e-lecture I realise that the amount of trust required to appoint a doctor online is almost equivalent to the trust required to maintain an online relationship. Both scenarios deal with the basic human needs love, trust and health.

On the sub headline replication, my opinion is that this is not the way to seek medical advice. I am convinced that the sheer numbers of different symptoms and diagnosis cannot lead to one and the same results on every single web page. As a result, and this is what I stated in my contribution to the discussion board, seeking medical advice online can only be established between the practitioner and the patient.

The 4 Cases
Although I have a relative who suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome I had to smile when Mike said that certain groups of people suffering from medical conditions get together and make their case heard. I agree that this is specifically important in the case of Chronic Fatigue.

Still, listening to the case I wondered if there is not an Internet group for people suffering from hypochondria. I don't know if hypochndria is classified as an illness, but I like the idea of an illness that is actually not having an illness.

Lecture 1 - 1.3: Dating & Intimacy on the Internet I-Lecture comments

Mike Kent presentation: Dating, Romance and the Internet

Trends in online dating:
- Fee-free ad-supported sites are becoming more popular
- Added value becoming more popular on these sites. (Buy chocolate and Flowers, stats on online dating strategies)
- The age of users online dating is increasing
- Separation is taking place to the advantage of niche markets (sexual orientation, race, religion)

Popular dating sites in Australia

• RSVP
• EHarmony
• Lavalife
• Adultmatchmaker
• Match

Example Match: Sign-Up is for free though, meeting a match costs a fee. This strategy leads to lots of registrations, inflating the match database. This database at the same time is the source of the commodity sold (the match searched by members of the same database). Match creates it's venue from its members.

Funny Niche sites are:
MatureGolfer, Singlemomsndads, Sugardaddie...

Religious, Racial and Cultural niches:
Christiansoulmates, Avemariasingles, Blacksingles...

Danger for dating sites definitely comes from Facebook. The reason is that Facebook users also experience that this Social Networking Service is a great way to date other people. Also see dating reading in this blog.

Dating sites linking or referencing to other related sites, it turns out to actually be the same ownership, but different make-up. (Fake diversity)

Subject: CHEATING

Where does flirting stop and where does cheating start?

There are sites that claim that they can reveal online cheating, others help with broken relationships and other others provide a museum of broken relationships: brokenships.

Mike talks about the tension between normal/everyday and the abnormal/unusual in dating.

Comment: I don't think that there is a tension online as there is an element of secrecy that cannot be maintained in the open.

While you may play different roles in different CMEs, you can also use them to reveal your true self. While most people are themselves in RL, some have to play a role to camouflage their real self to avoid being isolated or stigmatized because of their being different from what is commonly accepted.

Although not really a serious reference, this gives an idea of what I'm talking about: Niche “Inter-Generational Attraction”


Comment on slide Media Coverage, about online dating:
The headlines provided by Mike might be true, but if you have a hard look at them they fit perfectly into Channel Nine News and any gossip magazine you find at the cashiers of Coles and Safeway. The point I am making here is, that there might be an element of truth about some of the articles, but my experience tells me that a lot of articles are made up simply to sell higher publication numbers.

Important point in Summary: Power
Especially when revealing yourself (your details, other private information, your sexual references etc.) you pass on the power of knowledge about yourself to others. You cannot prevent them from using your data.

Comment on point in Summary: Community
Mike refers to the fact that people always look for certain members of the community. He further says that it is an interestingly constructed community.

I agree, but there is no real difference between the online and the offline community. It always relates to what I accept as my community. There are so many different facets of community. One is the community I travel to work and home with everyday on the bus and the commuter train. Although I recognise many of them every day, I don't feel like I have to interact with all of them. I choose to pick the ones that I relate to. Those are usually the ones who I work with and who take the same train. I deliberately construct my community.

It's the same with my home community. I have relations with certain members of my community. Again I construct my community.