Hacker Culture: Will Wikileaks and/or the Geeks Inherit the Earth?

This blog post is going to show how Digital technology have impacted upon our concepts of contemporary culture. In September 1938 PM Neville Chamberlain made a speech concerning the Munich Agreement. Less than a year after the agreement Europe was plunged into World War II. Wikileaks Wikilieaks is an online international organisation which publishes information and classified media. Julian Assange was one of the early members of the WikiLeaks staff and is credited as the website's founder.   There were many reports that a government inquiry prompted us to not serve Wikileaks any longer because its not accurate. There was also a large number of attacks but they were successfully defended. It wasnt following the 'Human Rights' as it was putting people in jeapoardy. Documents that were relased in Wikileaks that were published could have been carefully redacted in a way which wasnt putting innocent people in danger. Will the geeks inherit? A 'geek' is quite a stereotypical word. It is known to be a person wearing glasses and who is very smart and is good with technology and gadgets. It can also be referred as, A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept. The InnerGeek Website challenges this dismissive definition and argues that that a geek “is a person who is talented in an area outside the boundaries of social normality.”

Digital Media Systems: Paratexts Franchises, Fandom etc.

This blog post is going to focus on how digital media have impacted upon our concepts of the media text. Media theorists have recognized that our understanding a particular text is based on its relationships to other texts. Genre and Genre conventions These involve a close relationship through concepts of producer, IPR, medium, and audience. Paratexts It involves a close relationship through marketing and other non- narrative material called 'Paratexts'. Paratexts take a text and 'surround it and extend it'. -Ownership and Control: Paratextual Analysis Paratexts surround, shape, support and provide contexts for texts'. They may change the meaning of texts, it enhances meaning and provide sedimated meanings. There are different forms of paratexts, such as Digital Paratext. . The Gameboy 'Pokemon is an example. It has a beginning and an end but it repeats, it doesnt mean the game is necessarily over. - This is a closed product the credits keep rolling. An Open product or paratext It involves story rights, story franchise, merchandising and fandom. Alternate Reality Gaming This is not really a game. ARG players are characterised by a willingness to seek out new challenges across the world wide web and beyond, it is to find anagrams in names, coded IP addresses in numbers, and to theorize about the ARG with a wider community on a forum. Gamification It involves applying game design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging.

Digital Politics

Digital Politics & Power: The Dream of Democracy -Representative Democracy -Voting & party manifestos -Constitutions -Deliberative Democracy The Myths Of Internet We are on the verge of a new political era of computer-mediated democracy. Computer Activism -Activists set up computer system as community resource in Berkley California. The personal computer was developed by hobbyists. The first micro computer, the 'Altair sold in kit form. -Extreme utopiarism -Collective intelligence -Similar to Hobermass public sphere A Declaration Of Independence 'In our world, whatever human mind may create can be re produced and distributed infinitely at no cost' So why were the digital media greeted (initially) with such enthusiasm? Why are the media considered to be so important to democratic politics? The printing press as an agent of a change? Einstein notes in her synopsis to her book that aims to: -Describe 'The relationship between communications shift and other developments conventionally associated with the transition from medieval to early modern times. Print: A knowledge Bomb The connative effect of the changes in society focilated by print was that 'a knowledge bomb' explosion was set-off in Western Europe. Einstein argues that print was an agent of change that had an effect on: -Changes in religion through the reformation, challenges to the authority of the church. Characteristics of Social Institutions -Power (often expressed through concepts of control, ownership and access) -values (concepts of:legality, morality, customs, social norms and knowledge) Inclusion (concepts of: identity, exclusion, membership and representation.