.wk8. Geert.Lovink. on Web2.0

1) In his introduction, Lovink quotes G.H. Mead who describes "Sociality" as what?

      a) Sociality is the capacity of being several things at once.

2) Where did Silicon Valley find inspiration in the post 9/11 reconstruction period?

      a) Search start-ups like Google.

      b) Blog sites like blogger, blogspot, and livejournal, which allowed for self-publishing by consumers.

3) With tools to oversee national IP range, it is possible for countries to do two things with these technologies. What are they?

      a) To block users outside a country from viewing content from within the country

      b) To prevent citizens of a country from visiting foreign websites.

4) Lovink argues top-down considerations with Web 2.0 are less interesting than 'bottom-up' ones. What does he mean by this?

      a) Bottom-up refers to the use and creation of tools and information by the user or “activist” as he puts it. The content would be more pure which would then translate into more interesting content. The Top-down model for social media sites, blogs, and search engines depends upon the information that is sold as marketing data. Their function is to generate content for advertisers, which somewhat limits the content. User generated “bottom-up” considerations would be more broad in nature.

5) What is the function of profiles abstracted from 'user generated content' - how is it then used?

      a) Profiles for “user generated content” are created solely for marketing. They collect data that is sold to advertisers for marketing purposes.

6) What is 'massification'?

      a) Massification refers to the incredible number of users and the intensity in which those users use the internet.

7) Geert Lovink describes the Internet as an 'indifferent bystander' as a revolutionary tool in the global recession. What does he mean by this?

      a) The internet allows for mass marketing of ideas and control. It can be used in a variety of ways for an number of regimes that understand how to use it for power. Whether it’s used to block content, spy on citizens, or even incite revolution as seen recently in Egypt, the uses and events it allows are purely up to who controls it’s distribution.

8) Lovink says that power these days is not absolute but DYNAMIC?

9) "Managing complexity" is the aim of authoritarian uses of the internet such as the Great Chinese FIREWALL.

10) What are "organized networks"?

      a) Networks of individuals and user content that organize for the purpose of bringing about some sort of change.

.wk7.Video.Game.History.

1. Who invented the first computer game on the PDP1?
     Steve Russell

2. What was the name of the game?
     Spacewar!

3. What was the name of Morton Helig's amusement device that let you smell, hear and see in 3D filmed experiences?
    Sensarama 

4. What early 1970s movie does an arcade console machine of Spacewar appear?
    Spacewar! appeared in the 1973 movie Soylent Green.

5. What was the name of the man who developed the first TV tennis game?
    Ralph H. Baer

6. Who was the man whose company Atari commercialized the idea of the arcade computer tennis game?

    Nolan Bushnell

7. What was the name of this version of the game?
    Pong

8. What are vector graphics?
    Graphic shapes created by connecting lines to specific points through mathematical equations. They can be scaled indefinitely without loss of quality or clarity because the information saved is not specifically pixel based.

9. What types of games do vector graphics lend themselves to?
    3-D or first person shooter games like Battlezone and Asteroid where you move towards objects.  Vector graphics can change in size without altering the image or quality of the line. 

10. When home computers were first made available, how did owners load games into them?
      By programming the games themselves from prewritten instructions and code.

11. What is the name of the 1985 film in which a young Matthew Broderick starts World War III with his home computer and modem? 

      WarGames, and it was in 1983.

12. From what sources did the designer of the Space Invaders aliens draw inspiration?
      War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells for the octopus looking aliens, then expanded it to include other sea creatures as inspiration. 

13. What is the name given to the contemporary subculture of 8 bit music made with gameboys and other 80s game technology?

      Chiptunes - http://8bc.org/

14. "Escape from Woomera" was a videogame which was used to draw attention to the plight of inmates at a remote detention center in desert town in what country?

       Australia

.wk6.cyborg.human.

1) Steve Mann describes his wearable computer invention as a form of architecture for one person.

2) Steve Mann's concept of opposing camera surveillance with "Sousveillance" is described as a form of “reflectionism”. What is meant by this?

Reflectionism as described by Steve Mann is a philosophy for using technology to mirror and confront bureaucratic organizations. It is intended to uncover and put into view the privileged place within society these organizations that do surveillance have within society.  It’s a way of using the tools against the organization.

3) In the section of "Sousveillance" called "Performance Two" Steve Mann describes how wearing his concealed device becomes more complex when used in what type of spaces?

The experiment becomes more complex when wearing the device in semi-public, highly surveilled places like shopping malls.  More objections become raised and the playfulness is lost.

4) The final paragraph sums up what Mann considers the benefits of "sousveillance" and "coveillance". What are they?

Mann Believes that Sousveillance and Coveillance are self-powering for people within our society.  He sees it as  a way to take back the social control that surveillance has put on the people.  It’s almost a way of creating a community through computer networks and give people a new voice.

5) In William J Mitchell's 1995 book "City of Bits" in the chapter "Cyborg Citizens", he puts forth the idea that electronic organs as they shrink and become more part of the body will eventually resemble what types of familiar items?

Mitchell things that “electronic organs” or devices we are constantly using, will become more like clothing, soft, wearable items that contour to our bodies.

6) From the same book/chapter, list two of the things that a vehicle that 'knows where it is' might afford the driver & passengers.

Other than just giving you maps and directions to specific places like gas stations and hotels, it could give you highlights on local history and agriculture.  It could offer information specifically pertaining to you.

7) Mitchell tells the story of Samuel Morse's first Washington-to-Baltimore telegraph message. What was it?

What hath god wrought?

8) Donna Harroway in "A Cyborg Manifesto" argues that women should take the "battle to the border". What does she say are the stakes in this border war?

Harroway says the stakes in the border war are the territories of production, reproduction, and imagination.

9) Harroway posits the notion that:

"We require regeneration, not rebirth, and the possibilities for our reconstitution include the utopian dream". What is this dream?

The dream is of hope for a world without gender, or gender inequalities.

10) Many have argued that 'we are already cyborgs' as we use devices such as glasses to improve our vision, bikes to extend the mobility function of our legs/bodies etc, computers and networks to extend the nervous system etc. What do you think? Are we cyborgs?

The definition of cyborg changes from source to source.  The dictionary definition is “ a fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations.”  If this is the case, then no living person could ever be a cyborg.  Because the fictional and hypothetical are never concrete.  But Wikipedia, which I think of as the commonly use definition of the mass populous, sets a cyborg as any “being with both biological and artificial parts.”  This would make anyone with pace makers, artificial knees/hips, any metal plates/bolts or even external artificial parts a cyborg.  In the world today, I know no person without extensions to their body, without glasses/contacts, without constantly carrying a cell phone that they feel is a part of them.  When I think of modern day cyborgs I think of my father, who has a prosthetic leg, metal plates in his cheeks and on his skull holding his bones together.  This is in essence what we have become.  And as time progresses, technology will advance.  Instead of waiting on a donor list for a lung, kidney, or heart, one will be engineered and built just for you, completing the cyborg human.

.wk5.Vintage.Game.Play.

Destiny Askin

Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Asteroids

Released: 1979

Atari, Inc.

Designers: Lyle Rains & Ed Logg

1 - What is the game genre (e.g. shoot-em-up, racing, sports, puzzle, MMORPG, ‘sandbox’, music sequence following game (e.g. DDR, guitar hero)


Multi-Directional Shooter, Vector Game

2 -What is the type of game ‘world’ or environment (e.g. flat environment, puzzle/maze space, 3D world?)

Flat Environment in space


3 - What is the perspective taken by player (e.g first person, third person perspective, top down, isometric) in relation to main player controlled character.

Top-down perspective


4 - What is the actual gameplay – what does the player have to do?

The player maneuvers a space ship to shoot asteroids and UFO's.  The objective is to stay alive and in space as long as possible.


5 - Is the gameplay intuitive? (i.e. is it easy to understand what to do without instructions?) 

Yes.  The game is very basic and easily learned.  On a keyboard, the only keys you need are the arrows to maneuver and the space bar to shoot.


6 - Is the gameplay patterned (game does the same thing over & over) or is it random (happens differently every time?)

The game play is random.  By this I mean the size and order in which the asteroids appear and fly toward you is different in each game.

7 - What does the type of graphic approach used as well as the audio tell you about the limits of the technology at the time the game was published?


It really shows the limits to graphics and movement.  As well as the limit to what could be programmed within a game.  The game play is so simple that very little happens, but it still incorporates a randomness.


8 - Describe your views about the game from the point of view of


1. Ease of play: Asteroids is pretty easy once you get down the arrow controls.  It's a little counter intuitive because when you press the left arrow, your spaceship turns right.  Other than that the game play is all about coordination.


2. Enjoyability: I think it was probably very fun for it's time.  But the game play gets fairly monotonous after a short time.  The only things you can do are move and shoot.


c) Level of engagement/immersion: For me it was pretty low.  The graphics are very very simple and the game play was too basic to really get into the game for a long period of time. It didn't feel like a challenge.


9 - Had you played this game prior to this time? If so, when?


I didn't think i'd played it, but once i played for a while I faintly remember playing in an arcade as a child.


10 - what does playing the game remind you of in terms of other games/media?


It was a vector based game so it reminded me of the simple line drawings I created when first learning Adobe Illustrator.  The top down perspective reminded me of a zelda game I used to play on the original nintendo system.  But as far as modern games, I could see it as a pre-curser to first person type shooter games.  Where the objective is to shoot other people/creatures/objects to gain points and stay alive.