Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
P2P file sharing
The theme for the network assignment is Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing and how this network acts as a powerful platform on the Internet in three aspects - data transfer, communication, and information - which are important services offered by the Internet. Therefore, I will be making the webpages mimicking ThePirateBay torrent site (data transfer), Wikipedia (information), and Facebook (communication). I will explore the issues regarding P2P file sharing in the webpages.
Since P2P file sharing is closely associated with copyright infringement and illegal downloading, the approach of the web design is "Copycat", which I will name the pages by parody-ing current popular media (songs, movies, etc).
Since P2P file sharing is closely associated with copyright infringement and illegal downloading, the approach of the web design is "Copycat", which I will name the pages by parody-ing current popular media (songs, movies, etc).
Friday, November 12, 2010
Small Change or Big Change?
Malcolm Gladwell's "Small Change" vs. Clay Shirky's "It Takes A Village To Find A Phone"
I think both articles are convincing and strong with their examples. I would like to point out that Shirky and Gladwell’s are discussing groups that exist for different reasons. Shirky’s story is about the stolen phone and Gladwell’s story isabout social activism; they work differently and apparently express different interests.
I agree with Gladwell that social/political change needs to be done physically instead of ONLY spreading the message online. Since online groups are easy to join, they are easy to leave as well. If I join a group on Facebook, I do not have the obligation to be loyal to that group and I can leave the group any time. However, if I really care about an issue, I will take practical action to join the group physically and attend the meeting/protest.
When it comes to a less-serious issue like the stolen phone incident, online groups work well but it also has a limitation - the issue needs to be “fresh” enough to catch attention of the netizens. If this incident happens today, I don’t think many people would pay that much of attention. Most netizens expect contents on the Internet to be entertaining or attention catching; or else one can just close the browser window or check out about something else. Like what I said before, the information is easy to get, therefore it is easy to be navigated away as well.
I think both articles are convincing and strong with their examples. I would like to point out that Shirky and Gladwell’s are discussing groups that exist for different reasons. Shirky’s story is about the stolen phone and Gladwell’s story isabout social activism; they work differently and apparently express different interests.
I agree with Gladwell that social/political change needs to be done physically instead of ONLY spreading the message online. Since online groups are easy to join, they are easy to leave as well. If I join a group on Facebook, I do not have the obligation to be loyal to that group and I can leave the group any time. However, if I really care about an issue, I will take practical action to join the group physically and attend the meeting/protest.
When it comes to a less-serious issue like the stolen phone incident, online groups work well but it also has a limitation - the issue needs to be “fresh” enough to catch attention of the netizens. If this incident happens today, I don’t think many people would pay that much of attention. Most netizens expect contents on the Internet to be entertaining or attention catching; or else one can just close the browser window or check out about something else. Like what I said before, the information is easy to get, therefore it is easy to be navigated away as well.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)