Political Participation

* Sign an e-petition.
According to Wikipedia, an E-petition can also be a form of Chain Letter, so I've already done this several times! One of the most common would be the private messages women across the world get through Facebook messages. I went through my old posts and found a message which I'm going to copy and paste here.

"We are playing a game. Someone proposed that we GIRLS do something special on Facebook to help with Breast Cancer Awareness. Its easy, and Id like you to join us to help it spread. Last year it was about writing the color of the bra that your were wearing in your Fb status and it left men wondering for days why the girls had random colors as their status. This year it has to do with your relationship status. You will where you are, by posting one of the codes below. Remember - don't reply to this message just type your 1 word response in your status box on your profile. Then cut and paste this whole message into a new message and send it along to your female friends....

                                                                  American Brownies: It's complicated

Chocolate Indulgence: I'm single

Oreo Cheese: I'm a touch n go woman

Pecan Butterscotch: Engaged

Tiramisu: In a relationship

Moist Chocolate Cake: I'm married

Chocolate Banana: I'm "the other one"

Brownies Walnut: Can't find the right one

White Chocolate Macadamia: Wish I was single

New York Cheese: Can't wait to get married

The bra game reached TV, lets get this one to do the same here.

Remember: breast cancer affects everyone at every age. Self-check only takes a few minutes!"

So, by participating in this chain letter I have signed an E-petition. I also searched "E-petitions" on Google and it led me to a list of E-petitions on the Queensland Parliament website. I looked through the list and found a petition that I would gladly sign. This was the ban on the sale, use and promotion of 
prong-collars on dogs. 


I found the petitions here: 


Queensland Parliament, 2011, viewed 22nd of September, <http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/e-petitions> 

This is me doing an essay plan.

I've finally decided on my essay topic. I've chosen the question "Does the extensive use of computer/video games have an adverse impact on the health of young people. What are the most recent papers? Clarify what both sides of the argument claim and only then offer your reasoned opinion based on facts." I've chosen this topic because I feel like I've had some sort of relevant personal experience. I guess the internet was my "addiction" when I was younger, so as a result I missed out on a lot of other opportunities that many other children would have had. So because of this I decided my position would be yes, extensive use of computer/video games does have an adverse impact on the health of young people. 


To guarantee the best mark I can get, I would have to discuss these elements: 
- What sort of games would provoke extensive use? A range of games, mainly those that have a reality component. 
- How would these games impact the health of young gamers? There's the possibility of the uncertainty of what is real and what is not. They may apply unrealistic behaviour to real life, which could be dangerous depending on the games they play. There is also the long-term risk of depression, if the child grows up playing games all the time, alone in their room, they can become very lonely.
- How do I back up my claim that their health is at risk? Find articles!
- What sort of change should be made? Awareness should be made of the risks, along with encouragement for outdoor activities and communication with others to prevent anti-social, dangerous behaviour. 


I'm hoping I stick to this plan because the possibility of me going off track is very high!

Week 8 Lecture/Readings - Free Software

This weeks readings are based on two different things, Creative Commons and Free Software. I'll be focusing on Free software.

From the readings I found that free software was defined as "software that gives you the user the freedom to share, study and modify it. We call this free software because the use is free." (Lee, 2011) So from what I gather, free software is things such as Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, Itunes, etc. We are able to freely use these products as we wish, but there are extra opportunities within these softwares that require payment and acknowledgement of the original manufacturer.

Proprietary software is the complete opposite of free software, it denies users the freedom and benefits that free software provides. (Lee, 2011) The businesses who produce proprietary software can sometimes "spy" on those who use their products and see whether they are using the product accordingly or going against what was written in the license agreement that the user has to accept upon first use.

Luckily for us there is an entire movement involved in the promotion of free software, the promotion of liberty! This movement is called the "GNU" which is short for "GNU is Not Unix" (Lee, 2011) The goal of this movement is to basically be... free, free to do whatever we want (in relation to software). GNU says that "'Free software' is a matter of liberty, not price." (GNU Operating System, 2010) I find it quite amusing how devoted this movement is. I've heard of other movements that support the prevention of teen suicide/harm but I've never heard of a movement so wholeheartedly committed to software, it's quite... cute in a very absurd way.


Lee, M 2011, What is free software and why is it so important?, viewed 20th September 2011, <http://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software>
GNU Operating System, 2010, viewed 20th September 2011, <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>

The story behind the uploading of my video.

Tonight had got to be the most stressful night, ever. I filmed a lot of footage for me to work with on my video camera and when I went to upload it to my laptop, my uploading program would not recognise my camera! I spent about an hour trying out different ways to upload footage including updating software on my computer, restarting my computer, opening the programme first then connecting my camera, and several million other processes. I decided to go and work on some other assignments. About half an hour ago I realised I could use a normal digital camera to shoot similar footage. (The rest of this post was continued the next day) When I began filming the next day the digital camera had a few difficulties after working perfectly fine for about an hour. I freaked out a tiny bit but realised I could just use the camera on my laptop to film, so a few seconds on my film were done with Photobooth - Hooray for Macs!

I've created this video under a creative commons licence and taking into consideration the 'Share Alike' element in addition to compulsory 'Attribution' element of all creative commons work. (Creative Commons Australia, 2011) I'll credit the original artist/s on my Youtube video.


The purpose of my video is to show one's initial reaction to technology and how they find it annoying and to some extent, scary. The character in this film is on the verge of insanity from the constant noise which the device continues to produce. 


Creative Commons Australia, 2011, viewed 22nd September 2011, <http://creativecommons.org.au/learn-more/licences>

Essay Preparation

This blog post is going to start off rather awkwardly... I haven't actually begun preparing for my essay, I've been really busy, I'm sorry! Have no fear though, I will relieve you all from stress as I will be able to write about our "class discussion" on this weeks lecture and readings.

I'm going to write in response to the question "It is not illegal to share food or clothes or recipes, why should it be illegal to share software?" In my opinion, I think the answer is quite obvious. I suppose it all comes down to money and ethics. You wouldn't want someone stealing/submitting an artwork of yours without your permission, why would you let someone use a copy of your software that they haven't paid for, or acknowledged as something of value. To make it clear why sharing software is immoral we should consider the term "copyright". According to the Australian Government copyright is "a type of property that is founded on a person's creative skill and labour. It is designed to prevent the unauthorised use by others of a work, that is, the original form in which an idea or information has been expressed by the creator." (Australian Government, 2009)

So basically, it's a type of theft. By sharing software, you are committing a crime!






Australian Government, 2009, viewed 19th September 2011, <http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Copyright_Whatiscopyright>

Progress Report

So I've made quite a few decisions already. I've decided to apply a Black and White filter across my entire video to enhance the "mystery" of the film. I've only filmed about 15 seconds so far, I've still got quite a lot to do! I think I'm going to quickly sketch up a rough storyboard just so I know where I'm going and am not aimlessly shooting pointless material. 


I've got a few ideas in my head but I don't want to release them until my video is done, to create suspense for all those interested! I've decided on music, or lack of music. I'm using a tiny segment from Alice Practice by Crystal Castles. I find it'll help convey the tension desired.


I'm really excited for the final product because I love creating films (mostly editing though); I hope you all enjoy what I've come up with!

Wikipedia: Friend or Foe?

In response to this weeks readings I've decided to focus on the article regarding Wikipedia's form of governance. I, for one, believe that the idea of Wikipedia is great. I think it's a great place for someone to get background information on a topic and consequently form their own personal perspective on a situation. Of course I would not solely rely on the information gathered from Wikipedia, for the obvious reason; How do we know what we are reading is 100% accurate? I guess the answer is that we don't. 


I think that Wikipedia users need to understand that they must learn how to search beyond Wikipedia. If people don't realise that Wikipedia is only for general use then of course controversy will arise! It's the same concept as someone who's shampoo is giving them dandruff, stop complaining and find something else to use! Although, in saying this I'm not claiming that everything on Wikipedia is fake or unreliable. The founders of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger (Wikipedia, 2011), work to monitor everything that is entered onto the website. I found this particular quote in the readings, which I think accurately captures the nature of Wikipedia, “Everyone is free, indeed, to propose a contribution, but the people who run the project are equally free to reject the contribution outright … The core task of managing a Commons is to ensure not just the production of resources, but also to prevent its degradation from the addition of low quality material.” (Stadler 2008)


P.S I apologise for referencing Wikipedia, I couldn't help it!




Kostakis, V 2010, First Monday, 'Identifying and understanding the problems of Wikipedia's peer governance: The case of inclusionists verse deletionists', vol. 15, viewed on the 12th September 2011.


Wikipedia: About, 2011, viewed 12 September 2011, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About>

"What is this technology you speak of?"

So over the next few weeks we're expected to produce one or more short audio visual pieces whilst simultaneously blogging our progress. I've decided to stay within the theme of "new communication technologies" and make a short film regarding one's first encounters with technology. I thought it would be comical to touch on the "horror" genre, because, let's face it, first time experiences are always slightly horrifying.

During high school I studied film and television for a couple of years so production is quite enjoyable for me and I'm well acquainted with copyright problems so it occurred to me quite quickly that music will definitely be an issue. I don't intend on creating my own music because quite frankly whatever I produced would sound disgusting, so I will stick to the professionals and have to give them credit.

Although I use a Mac and could quite easily use Movie Maker, I'm going to create this film with Adobe Premiere as this is the program I am most familiar with. I'm thinking I'll only use videos that I've shot, because I love to film! The more filming the better. To shoot my film I'm going to be using my family video camera, it's a Sony handy cam that was bought last year, so it's quite user-friendly. I'll also be in my film so I can only rely on myself.

To import the footage on my computer to produce I am going to have to use iMovie. iMovie imports and formats the footage so it is useable in other programs! (Oh, how I love my Mac)