If the planet had a backbone, the internet would be it.

When looking at my blog posts over the past 13 weeks it is clear that the internet (in particular social media) has had a significant influence throughout the entire course.  Not only has it changed the way that humans communicate, educate, protest, purchase and entertain but it has also changed the way simple objects interact with the world.

This video provided by IBM sums up the notion of the internet of things well as they suggest that the planet has grown a ‘a central nervous system’ connecting everything from people to water pipes. Although many sceptics argue that by depending upon the internet for so many things will have dystopian consequences, I believe that this unprecedented connectedness will have a positive impact upon our word. By harnessing these systems and allowing products to become easier, smarter and better our daily tasks will become even more simplified then they already are. In addition to this, there are numerous other positives including health and environmental  benefits that we are already beginning to experience  without even noticing it. A few of these benefits are outlined in the CISCO video below:

It is clear that the internet has impacted on so many areas of life that it surpasses even the wildest expectations of the innovators that created it. And as a closing note, I believe that in another 10 years time we will look back on this moment and realise that today, we hadn’t  even begun to scratch the surface.

This weeks topic was one of the most interesting of the whole course. At first I couldn’t comprehend what the whole notion was about but after researching and gaining a slight understanding of what the ‘internet of things’ actually means I found this topic to fit perfectly as the concluding chapter of the global networks course.

Apple or Android- Where does your heart lie?

The Google Android and the Apple iOS are clearly the two rising superpowers of the mobile world. Although until this week, I had never realised that the Android was such a key player in this equation. I don’t know about you, but at least 75% of my friends seem to own an Apple iPhone and not one of them owns an Android operated device. Because of this I found the below chart bizarre as it confirms that the Android is more popular than the Apple iOS with Android dominating over of 40% the US market share.

Top Smartphones- March 2011
Source: http://www.talkandroid.com/50855-android-now-at-40-of-smartphone-share/

The below infographic highlights a few key areas in which the two operating systems differentiate including memory size, number of applications and data migration. Regardless of the flaws, I am a passionate Apple supporter, although I often wonder how much of this is to do with my personal choice or influence from Apples sophisticated marketing strategies.  I believe that Apple has found a way to tap into consumer desire in a way that has is yet to be achieved by Google and unless Google can find a way to capture this desire Apple will always be winning in my eyes.  

The social networking revolution.

The author of this weeks reading Evgeny Morozov has long attempted to dismiss the power of social media technologies upon political activism. In an earlier article titled ‘Iran: Downside to the Twitter revolution’ he labelled the practice of online activism as ‘slacktivism’; stating that social media platforms such as Twitter are nowhere near as influential as we have come to believe and instead have fuelled a generation of “feel-good but useless internet activists” (Morozov, 2009, p13).

Although Morozov has some creditable arguments, I believe that he has been way too quick in denouncing the use of Twitter and Facebook as revolutionary tools. For example if the use of Twitter for political activism is what Morozov (2009) deems ‘use-less’, then I find it ironic that the Iranian government felt such immense political pressure from dissident voices within the online sphere that they attempted to block access to social media sites within the country during the Iranian revolution.

In addition to this example, my position is supported by the current research from Howard (2011) in the paper “Opening Closed Regimes: What was the role of social media during the Arab Spring?” which after the critical analysis of over 3 million tweets from mid 2010 to 2011 found that social media played a critical and central role in shaping political debates in the Arab Spring.

In conclusion this weeks reading, is just yet another example of how social media is changing the way we live. As my prior blogs have demonstrated not only has social media changed the way we communicate, entertain, learn, purchase and participate but also it has changed the way we engage in politics. Although I recognise that social media did not cause the political upheaval during the Arab Spring, I do believe that it has played a critical role in allowing the average citizen to become more educated, interested in and involved with politics.

References:

Morozov, E (2009) ‘Iran: Downside to the ‘Twitter revolution’, Dissent, Vol.56, No.4, pp.10-14.

Julian Assange; Terrorist or Freedom Fighter?

This week the question of whether I agree or disagree with the way WikiLeaks is run was raised in tutorial. As seen in the class discussion and from my research online it is clear that many of us are still divided upon this question.

The mission of WikiLeaks according to their website is to bring “truth to the world by publishing fact-based stories without fear or favor.”  Although this mission seems harmless and positive it is clear from research into public opinion that many do not agree with the actions of Julian Assange.

 On one hand people are convinced that Assange is a terrorist out to destroy the world:



Image Source: http://www.debate.org/debates/Wikileaks/2/



 While others consider him a freedom fighter deserving of a noble peace prize:



Image Source: http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/mediadiary/index.php/theaustralian/comments/julian1/



After sifting through all the media hype and spin upon each of these juxtaposing positions, I have decided that I support  the actions of Julian Assange and believe that in today’s society of mass media ownership and government corruption that an organisation like WikiLeaks is fundamental to a healthy democracy. Although governments attempt to discredit the work of Assange by arguing that by releasing sensitive documents he is threatening national security, I believe that this threat is no where near sufficient enough to have the site closed down.

Now I have made my position on this issue clear, I would like to hear yours. Is Assange irresponsible, a hero of free speech or simply somewhere in between?

As newspapers die, blogs mulitiply.

The debate over whether traditional news media outlets are being replaced by citizen journalism and blogs is long lived and in my opinion over hyped. Although user generated blogs are on the rise, I believe that they will not replace traditional information outlets.

Firstly, most bloggers simply comment and write pieces on stories that have already been circulated by traditional news media and produced by professional journalists. The citizen journalist generally relies on the news to break stories first and then relying on this creditable information the blogger begins publishing. Therefore without embedded professional journalists breaking news bloggers would not have the resources available to publish their own opinions.

This leads to my second point being that although citizen journalism facilitates new voices to be heard, these individual voices are often highly opinionated. Don’t get me wrong, I do not believe that traditional journalism is purely objective and wholly unbiased but I do believe that the credibility of their organizations provide them with an advantage over an isolated and unknown blogger.

As supported by the below research by PEW (2010), it is clear that citizen journalism never is and never was going to replace traditional news outlets. Aside from the hype generated by money hungry media conglomerates who were threatened by the idea of any one else profiting from the news but themselves, citizen journalism is in fact an asset to traditional news and I believe that once media outlets find a way to incorporate bloggers into their business models the two can exist in harmony.

ASOS; A shopping world of abundance!

No longer do we live in a world of scarcity. We live in a world of abundance.

This weeks reading by Anderson made me realize how the internet has opened a huge window of options for consumers. Growing up in a small town with limited clothing stores and one tiny music store I have experienced the concept of scarcity first hand. But today with constant access to the World Wide Web I am provided with an abundance of options and am no longer forced to shape my style and tastes around what limited items are included within these stores.

Anderson describes how the internet has created an entirely new economic model based on three main rules; make everything available, provide items at a lower cost and help consumers find what they are after. For the purpose of this blog I am going to discuss how the clothing site ASOS has followed these rules to achieve worldwide economic success.

Rule number one; Make everything available.

The internet has abolished many of the challenges faced by offline stores including the limitations of storage space and restriction of 9-5 opening hours. Due to the removal of physical space and transition into the virtual ASOS can afford to offer a catalog of over 50,000 ‘hit AND miss’ items to its customers.

The ASOS warehouse; an unbelievable 161, 544 square meters of storage space.

Rule Number Two; Cut the price in half. Now lower it. The costs associated with the sale of products online are much lower than what are incurred offline.  Therefore ASOS has the advantage of not only offering an enormous range of items 24/7 but also are able to offer these at a lower cost.

Rule Number Three; Help me find it.

This is the tricky part, as without the reassurance of a retail assistant convincing you that the horrible purple mini skirt would match perfectly with a pink spotted t-shirt it is often hard to make a purchase decision. ASOS and many other clothing stores have recognized that during the decision making process you need to adopt both the short and long tail approach and by relying on consumer behavior data they are able to suggest additional products which enables them to gently encourage consumers to explore the unknown outside of tiny offline retail outlets.

Facebook is the new WWW.

Who needs an email account when you have Facebook messages? Who needs MSN when you have Facebook chat? Who needs Flicker when you have Facebook photos? Who needs Foursquare when you can have Facebook places? Who needs to watch the ABC when you can be informed of the world’s news through Facebook status updates? Who needs YouTube when your friends are going to show you the best videos via Facebook? Who needs the World Wide Web when you already have FACEBOOK?!

Facebook is no longer just a social networking site. It has evolved into a convergence destination that is slowly replacing email, instant messaging, video-sharing, gaming and other activities that were previously scattered across the World Wide Web.  Jenkins (2004) states that ‘convergence is more than simply a technological shift it alters the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres and audience’ and Facebook has done just that. 

Facebook has revolutionized the way we interact with and consume media. I myself have become heavily dependent on Facebook not only for socializing, sharing and stalking but also often use the platform as a news source. Today I feel as though I am more informed of breaking news via Facebook than watching the ‘actual’ news. This is due to the instantaneous nature of Facebook with a status update often able to inform quicker than a news outlet can. For example a quick check of Facebook via my iPhone on May 2^nd this year informed me that Osama Bin Laden had apparently been killed.  There are numerous other examples to add to this list but the point I am trying to make is that convergence within Facebook has reduced the amount of time users spend ‘surfing’ web as many have become trapped within the Facebook vortex and are thus not required to utilize many of the other platforms of the world wide web.

Jenkins, H (2004) The Cultural Logic of Media Convergence, International Journal of Cultural Studies, 7/1, 33-43.