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Summary: In PBS’s Digital Nation segment “The Dumbest Generation?” the main topic is because of technological advancements and media multitasking are we as academically capable as a generation as we once were? The segment completed research at MIT, backing up profession claims with actual student interactions and interviews. Media multitasking results in the current generation...

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation published a 2004 research study surrounding media usage in youth ages 8-18 years old that they compare to their past publication in 1999 on the same subject. The first few pages of the report is the introduction, in which raw statistics of media usage within the youth in various decades of the 20th century are highlighted in order to display...

In Ulmer's reading, "Electronic Monuments", an examination of MEmorials is made. Ulmer analyzes the hypothesis of electronic monumentality is that the context for the proposal is the need for compositional practice and the capability of supporting learning with digital technology. The idea of electronic monuments is one that does not need to be created for the purpose of commemorating...

In Don Fallis' article titled "Toward an Epistemology of Wikipedia", he argues that Wikipedia's epistemic consequences are likely to be good for our society. Fallis makes a statement that to make Wikipedia a good and more reliable source, we must clarify the epistemic values that we expect it to follow (Fallis 1662). Fallis argues that people are likely to acquire knowledge through...

In relevance to the reading we read for last Thursday on Google, this video is pretty much a visual representation of the discussion-I thought it was very interesting!Find it he...

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guittari propose the idea of the rhizome in the "Introduction" from A Thousand Plateaus. The rhizome is related to the botanical idea of a plant that grows in multiple directions from a bulb as oppose to taking root from a seed. The authors posit that this structure can be related to the structure of thought (or lack thereof) in literature, though they...

In her article, "Autistic Culture Online: Virtual Communication and Cultural Expression on the Spectrum," Joyce Davidson gives a call for awareness of the social movement of those on the Autistic Spectrum (AS). She cites evidence that the autistic community has a related 'form of life,' a "cultural grouping" of "... members who are 'related' in terms of the flexible notion of...

Again, sorry about not doing the primary blog during 3/11... I'll be primary blogging with Kyle.Summary: Joyce Davidson’s paper Autistic Culture Online: Virtual Communication and Cultural Expression on the Spectrum provided an interesting analysis of how people on the Autistic Spectrum (AS) have their own way of communicating. This form of communication through virtual interaction...

Hey guys, I was actually supposed to do a primary blog on 3/11 but I messed up on the dates so ended up not doing that. Sorry about that, so I'll be doing a primary blog alongside Kyle for this week.Summary: Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guatarri provide an abstract and extended metaphor to help explain the structure of thought in their introduction to A Thousand Plateaus. ...

The Hacker Manifesto, +++The Mentor+++ Written by an pen named source in 1986, the Hacker Manifesto is an interesting and creative look into the mind of someone the outside world sees as a product of the computer generation boom, a Hacker.  The writer writes to two very different audiences, the voice in which he or she mocks, the outside authority figure who calls these...

The GNU Project Logo Beforehand, I need to make clear I used an online pdf version of the manifesto, therefore I will not be citing pages from the NMR.  I apologize if this inconveniences anything for anyone.  The link I used is here.  (I apologize, the link is now down, but you can access it online at manybooks.net) The GNU Manifesto was first written in 1985...

Myron Krueger, better known as “the father of virtual reality,” argues within his work Responsive Environments that the response is the medium. Thinking back to the beginning of man-machine interaction, the abilities of expansion were restricted, the ability of full throttle fun was restricted, and the overall concept was limited. Krueger states, “a responsive...

Summary:In “Cyber-Spaces of Grief: Online Memorials and the Columbine High School Shootings,” Maya Socolvsky discusses the psychological and sociopolitical roles of online memorials. Socolvsky states that, “Death is narrated fully, and although the departed are mourned and missed, death itself is understood and mastered [on an Internet memorial]” (476). The author goes on to...

Summary:Foot, Warnick, and Schneider study the characteristics of online memorials, specifically those of the September 11 terrorist attacks, in the work, “Web-Based Memorializing After September 11: Toward a Conceptual Framework.” The authors attempt to both show the differences between “online” and “offline” memorials and create a set of characteristics with which online memorials...

Game Experience Summary: I don’t usually play online games computer games so I tried “William and Sly” (http://www.kongregate.com/games/Kajenx/william-and-sly). The game was fun for a bit, but the task that Sly, the fox you play as, was asked to do by his friend William was just too easy. Sly had to collect some “fairyflies” to fix the teleport system around the map. The...

Chip Morningstar and Randall Farmer highlight the idea of naïve natural planning when it comes to the design of multi-faceted computer programs in their composition entitled The Lessons of Lucasfilm’s Habitat. The Habitat project was “the first attempt to create a many player online virtual environment (664).” In its beginning stages computer programming and software reflected...

Sherry Turkle’s original publication of her book The Second Self was an influence to the new media scene. The excerpt entitled Video Games and Computer Holding Power went beyond the consequence and influence video games have on children and adults. She explores the nature of the game and the immersed connection a person has when heavily involved in the matrix of a particular...

Summary:In the article, "Ideology and the Map", by Barton and Barton, a statement is posed at the very beginning of the article that presents the idea of the map being "quintessentially ideological" (NMR 50). Barton and Barton explain this idea throughout the essay and discuss the ways that the inclusive ways of the map are to be taken away and replaced with the ideas of the repressed...

 SummaryFoucault’s Panopticism begins with a story describing how lepers and plague victims were dealt with in the 17th Century—leper’s exclusion, and plague victims intense surveillance and punishment.  He then goes on to describe Bentham’s architectural Panopticon, which combines methods of discipline previously established, but to a more effective degree, “The...

"Hyperreality: The simulation of something which never really existed," --Baudrillard Summary Jean Baudrillard, a French philosopher whose works run parallel to the postmodernism movement, writes in "America" describing, by either city or location, his observations of the hyperreal society Americans live in and live as.  His writing voice takes a diversion from his other...

SUMMARY: If you were to define the “real world” today, what major aspects would be included? For Robert Coover, he believes the real world is comprised of “video transmissions, cellular phones, fax machines…” (NMR 706). In “The End of Books” Coover highlights the possible future outcome of the end of books in relation to technological reliance and development, specifically...