:: Netwoman ::

:: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 ::

internet - media for the people

I know more about politics then I ever have in my life. I was never really captivated by print media - one sided sensationalized perceptions of what politicians are adovcating.

the internet has been many things in it's short history - web 1.0, 2.0 and now 3.0 - interactive internet knocks at your door. Web 3.0 is more than passive media consumption, it's more than connecting with people who have similar profiles - web 3.0 is participatory, it's a space that's created by people - for people, it's ineractive and it's much more.

One of my favourite new hobbies is YouTube - watching anything from webshows such as God Inc, to music videos, indie music, to SL machinimas to political commentary. Who needs television?

back to politics...

YouTube has a great selection of short videos about George W. Bush - and while many are Michael-Mooresque, they certainly show exactly what people think of the el presidente. What other venue could allow people to so creatively - and effectively - exercise their freedom of speech and air out their political discontent? Take a look at the videos - funny - shocking - real.

:: Netwoman 8:01 PM [+] ::
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PC or Partner?

Which would you choose?

Forget the spouse, your desktop understands you better

Survey shows 65% of PC users give their computers more face time than their spouse
By Denise Dubie, Network World, 01/22/07
Forget what your spouse looks like? Having trouble remembering you’re married? There might be a good reason for that: 65% of PC users spend more time in front of their monitors than interfacing with their spouses.

This can be a bit misleading - is this just at home or all of our PC use? If it includes PC use at work, then I'm not surprised - most people spending 40+hrs a week at paid employment will see their work peers more than their family members. I'd want to see how they measured this, but I suspect this is media hype.

Then we have this:

Surfing net is top pastime for elderly
By David Derbyshire, Consumer Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 12:35am GMT 04/02/2007

Browsing the internet has overtaken DIY and gardening to become the favourite pastime of older people, according to a survey. Silver surfer: The internet is named as one of the favourite pastimes of retired Britons
The current generation of "silver surfers" spends an average of six hours online each week, research by the insurance company AXA found.
Emailing and online chatting to friends and family was the favourite internet activity of the retired people surveyed, followed by researching information, booking holidays and shopping.

:: Netwoman 10:04 AM [+] ::
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Harvard's New President

At first I thought hell froze over, but then I double checked the news - yes indeed, Harvard has named their 28th President - Drew Faust - a woman.

"This is a great day, and a historic day, for Harvard," said James R. Houghton, the senior member of the Harvard Corporation and chair of the presidential search committee. "Drew Faust is an inspiring and accomplished leader, a superb scholar, a dedicated teacher, and a wonderful human being. She combines a powerful, broad-ranging intellect with a demonstrated capacity for strong leadership and a talent for stimulating people to do their best work, both individually and together. She knows Harvard and higher education, and her interests extend to the whole of the University, across the arts and sciences and the professional domains.

Somewhat unsurprising is the timing of all this, considering that Harvard came under fire and scrutinity two years ago for sexist remarks made by President Lawrence Summers. While I applaude Faust's appointment (as she has some respected feminist accomplishments under her belt), this might be a political move of the university to counter past issues - a way to smooth things over perhaps...

:: Netwoman 9:52 AM [+] ::
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Conference Call
Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

Worldwide Education & Research Conference 2007

Sun Microsystems hosted another conference this year in San Francisco - Education 2.0: Education in the Participation Age. Dr. Gerri Sinclair (who I work for as a Virtual Research Assistant at Great Northern Way Campus in BC) was asked to speak about some of the things we're doing at the Virtual Centre for Digital Media for the Masters of Digital Media program.

Here we are in Second Life - the Virtual Research Assistants - We were all participating in the Sun Microsystem Conference here - Gerri Sinclair in San Fran showing us in SL, Tracy & Joanna in Canada, Michael in Oxford UK, and Sonu in BC - all connecting through skype.

Our focus in the session was to talk about some of the things the new MDM will offer to students - primarily an interactive learning environment where learning is student centered, innovative and creative. Some of the things we talked about came from the workshops that we held in previous weeks, where we had two brainstorming sessions and then a session where we put theory in practice. We put together a machinima (YouTube) about how it all went.

So, it was another interesting adventure in virtual reality and education.

:: Netwoman 9:59 PM [+] ::
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chatolicious
Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

How Much is Too Much?

Do we communicate too much?
Is 'always on' always good?

I just realized how many different chat programs I have. I don't usually run them all at the same time, but to cover all my networks - I need all of them;

Msn x 2
Yahoo
Aol
Google Talk
Skype

As I'm writing a paper right now on how household members communicate with each other - I'm focusing on cell. landline, IM and email. Most people in my sample don't IM a lot - to anyone. So my little discovery here is that - it's not only about which mode of communication (but you generally only have one cell phone, one landline, maybe a couple of emails and landlines throughout the house) but here we have various kinds of the same media - IM - all in the same place used at the same time. neat.

:: Netwoman 2:01 AM [+] ::
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