As part of my KCB201 assessment this blog discusses the cultural applications of the internet and new media technology.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Who wants to fly me to Seattle?

Intern at Worldchanging!

I found this post on the worldchanging.com website and was tempted to scrap my QUT studies... if only I had a few thousand dollars to spare!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Citizen journalism: turning the tide against totalitarianism?


I’ve been reading a book lately called Wild Swans by Jung Chang. It’s a fairly well known book that describes the lives of three generations of Chinese women – the author, her mother and grandmother. Jung Chang explained how Mao Zedong was able to manipulate an entire country because he could control the information that entered, exited and circulated within China. One passage struck me in particular:

“Next, Mao moved in on the media, primarily the People’s Daily, which carried the most authority as it was the official Party newspaper and the population had become accustomed to it being the voice of the regime” (1993, 368).

This led me to wonder whether the same sort of totalitarian control would be possible today?

On the surface, it seems that advances in internet and mobile technology have thrown citizens who live under oppressive governments an information lifeline. Citizen journalism is the process by which ordinary people sidestep traditional news sources to seek out or contribute news information. As We Media states:

“Armed with easy-to-use Web publishing tools, always-on connections and increasingly powerful mobile devices, the online audience has the means to become an active participant in the creation and dissemination of news and information.”

The topics covered by citizen journalism often draw attention to issues that are ignored or inaccessible to the mainstream media, and the combined efforts of online communities means that the content produced is often more up-to-date than the commercial versions. In an article for Time magazine Jodi Zu discusses the huge popularity of video-sharing websites, particularly Tuduo.com, in China. Technology, such as camera phones, has allowed Chinese citizens to view and distribute content that the government has attempted to stamp out (one notable video apparently showed drunk police officers beating a college girl). Outside of China, collectives such as mobileactive.org use mobile technology, (a powerful force when you realize that there are 3.5 billion mobile phones in the world), to push for social change.

Yet although people have greater opportunities to access, record, distribute and receive information, at the end of the day, these intrepid citizen journalists still answer to their respective governments. Simon Elegant’s article for Time magazine related the story of one Chinese ‘netizen’ whose blog covered disputes between Chinese authorities and ordinary citizens. Although Zhou Shuguang’s blog received over 20 000 views per day at the height of its popularity, the authorities intervened and Zhou was given an armed escort to the airport. Zhou’s career as a blogger for social change lasted barely six months, and he has now returned to his previous role as a vegetable seller. Commissioner Faith Pansy Tlakula, a member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, told worldchanging.org that she receives a ‘considerable number’ of reports that detail incidents of journalists in Africa being harassed, arrested, tortured and even murdered by the authorities in charge.

Totalitarian control of information, as exhibited by Mao Zedong, is certainly no longer possible. Yet while citizen journalism clearly has the power of numbers and technology to draw attention to pressing global issues, irresponsible governments still exist. Robert Mugabe is still in power even though the Zimbabwe elections were followed by eyes the world over, and the results were clearly fabricated. Yet instant results cannot be expected. Installing democratic governments does not automatically occur merely because we become aware of their unjust practices.

I think ‘we’, as a motley crew of politically active and interested citizens, are moving in the right direction. Global online communities are banding together and driving for social change, and oppressive governments are becoming subject to greater scrutiny. Rather than answering to organizations such as the United Nations, where proposals and calls for action can take months to process, undemocratic governments are now feeling the instant glare of global scrutiny. Whether this increasing pressure will bring about lasting change remains to be seen, but for the moment I believe that the vast numbers and strength of online communities is a heartening testament to the number of politically active citizens spread across the globe.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

A model for successful co-existence of print and online media

For several years now traditional media companies (newspapers, television, etc) have been desperately trying to prevent the internet from undermining their massive profits and power. You would be hard pressed to find a media company these days that does not have its own website, yet some of these (such as ninemsn) are barely more than thinly veiled attempts to hook people into buying magazines and watching television programs. This, I feel, represents the backwards thinking that most media organizations apply to their online presence: “We won’t actually change what we do, we’ll just make a website that sells our existing products! Neat-o!”.

The reluctance to embrace the capabilities of the web is most likely due to the fact that the internet does not function according to the same straightforward revenue model as traditional broadcast media. As Jim Willse, editor of Newark’s Star-Ledger, put it to a conference of news media producers earlier this year, "the business model of newspapers that we all grew up with has blown up.” (For the full article click here).

People no longer have to pay for content, and can access a variety of global media within seconds. However, all is not lost as there are media organizations that I believe are working with the internet, resulting in a stronger media presence and greater engagement with their readers.

One of these media organizations is Ode magazine. The website describes Ode as “The online community for Intelligent Optimists”, and is a great example of how to effectively combine print and online media. The site makes use of the internet’s capabilities as a social networking tool: spaces are provided for blogs; exchange of ideas; information on members of the community; and various interest groups within the Ode community. The website does provide information about the magazine and opportunities to subscribe, but is more concerned with providing a space for users to share their thoughts and ideas. Ode magazine could possibly be seen as a realisation of Howard Rheingold’s virtual communities, which are detailed in Flew (2004, 62). Rheingold (in Flew, 2004, 62) was one of the first to muse about the potential for online communities to reinvigorate users’ sense of community value and foster greater interest, and therefore participation, in public life. He believed that for this to occur, three factors must be in place:


  1. Social networks and social capital
  2. The sharing of knowledge and information
  3. The enabling of new modes of democratic participation in public life

Ode’s online community can tick all of these boxes quite easily. The magazine has managed to achieve what other print publications have not: establish a strong presence on and offline, both of which function independently but remain extensions of a single brand.

There are several aspects of Ode which may have contributed to its success. Firstly, the magazine was established relatively recently, in 1995. This means that rather than having to remodel an existing organization to suit web developments, Ode would have been able to adapt to the internet as both the magazine and internet technology took off. Secondly, the focus of Ode magazine is the sharing of ideas and linking people. This is at odds with the profit-driven motives of the majority of magazines (or any media product for that matter). Naturally, the powers that be at Ode gravitated towards the internet as a perfect vehicle hold open-ended discussions and exchange knowledge and ideas.


References

Flew, T. 2004. Virtual Cultures. In T. Flew, New media: an introduction, 61-82. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Queensland University of Technology: Course materials Database (accessed March 14, 2008).

Thursday, May 1, 2008

A real-world proposal for a ‘real world’ university.

Throughout my time at QUT there has been one major contradiction that has leapt out at me every time I've jumped on the internet. Although we study at a leading university and most of our learning and information resources are accessed over the internet, QUT's online systems are inconsistent, inefficient and difficult to use. This seems entirely at odds with our current focus of study – how individuals use and interact with the internet in ever more sophisticated ways.


A major theme that runs through the KCB201 content is the developing role of internet users as producers of online content. Open source software is one area in which the expertise of many internet users is combined to produce applications (such as websites, programs or even servers) that are cheaper, more functional and more reliable than commercially produced versions. For example, the Mozilla Firefox web browser is a product of open-source software that just passed the 500 million download mark.


One of the benefits of open source software is that the source code can be modified as glitches in the application are discovered. This means that if you are using a program and it does not perform the way you would like it to, you can simply look at the source code and change it to suit your needs.


So one day, after entering my sign-in information for the fifth time in a row, I pondered wistfully... what if the QUT online systems could be redesigned using open source software? What if these systems were a product of user-led collaboration? Here are five reasons why QUT websites would make an ideal open source project:


  1. The current websites are, quite simply, ineffective and limited in their functionality. As a student, I have to access four different webpages to do the following: find out information about my personal enrolment (QUT virtual); communicate via email (QUT webmail); access learning resources (QUT blackboard); and locate university information (QUT homepage – prepare to burrow 17 pages deep). To complicate things further, the information spread across these webpages is often inconsistent and out of date. If open source software was used, QUT students, teachers and staff would be able to modify the websites to suit their needs. Currently, the QUT online systems are a typical example of what opensource.org refers to as a “traditional closed model, in which only a very few programmers can see the source and everybody else must blindly use an opaque block of bits”.

  1. QUT has access to an extremely valuable bank of IT knowledge: its students and teachers. This collective knowledge would be more than capable of designing and adapting online systems that are more user-friendly than the current models. Also, current students would have a vested interest in producing online systems for QUT as they would directly benefit from their enhanced usability. This would avoid any ethical qualms associated with ‘hijacking the hive’, as those who contribute are those who are rewarded.

  1. Many hands make light work. The diversity of courses, faculties, students, teachers, campuses (and so much more) means that the amount of information to be transferred online and on time is way beyond the capacity of the Web Solutions or Information Technology Services (ITS) staff. These divisions are more concerned with functional problems, such ensuring that servers stay online and audiovisual equipment performs correctly. This leaves little scope to assess the practicality of online systems, as the task of ensuring that these systems, however ineffective, keep running is huge in itself.

  1. The websites could be updated and adapted as needed. Although forums and discussion boards do exist on QUT blackboard pages, I doubt these are used to their full potential. Currently, the content of the KCB201 ‘Feedback’ folder on QUT blackboard reads: “folder empty”. While the university conducts Learning Experience (LEX) surveys, these are more focused on course content and teaching standards, and do not consider the performance of websites and online systems. There are no opportunities for feedback about the usability of websites, or for ideas for new features to be floated. In fact the last time the ITS conducted ‘Quality of Service’ surveys was in 2004 and 2002. It is reasonable to say that the needs of students have changed in the last four years. Certain parts of QUT virtual and blackboard are redundant, while in other areas there exists a need for new services. If QUT’s students were able to contribute ideas and information, or request amendments to services, the web systems would be more functional and would be a closer match to what students actually require.

  1. QUT would save enough money to shout the entire staff a holiday to Vanuatu. This may be exaggerating slightly, but the cost of maintaining and designing webpages for an institution with over 40 000 students would be staggering. Instead of paying for commercial education software, such as Blackboard and Virtual systems, QUT would be able to internally develop web applications that exactly suit the needs of its staff, students and teachers. Redundant tools would be cast aside, leaving us all with a streamlined system designed to suit our individual needs.

Of course, my idealistic proposal will probably never make it into the real world. Firstly, because I do not have the background in IT to assess whether this idea is even feasible (although for a similar project, take a look at Stanford University's Open Source Lab project here). In fact I’m certain that there are gaping holes in my argument, but this post is more of a hypothetical question rather than a technically flawless proposal. Second, the security risks and lack of control over open source software mean that it is unlikely to be adopted by QUT anytime soon. But for a university that espouses its focus on creativity and innovation, and on learning for ‘the real world’, I think that the functionality of online services could definitely be improved. The following quote is lifted directly from the QUT Creative Industries webpage, and its lofty aspirations grind against the rigid and stale web services that we are all forced to work around in order to complete our study.


QUT Creative Industries is commited (sic) to staying at the forefront of creative enterprise, practice, learning and research. We challenge tradition, providing new meanings, environments and perspectives, training graduates that are ready not only for today’s demands, but for the creative world that is yet to arrive.”