The Social Revolution

Social media has progressed from an extra curricula activity which was mostly supported by teens and others content in sharing their lives over the World Wide Web as a form of communication into what many would a call a necessity of life. Facebook is undoubtedly the most dominant form of social media currently and it looks like it is set to be here for many years to come. How many times has a conversation you've recently had start with "Did you see on Facebook...." Clearly, our appetite for social media has grown into this beast that seems to be consuming its many users. Yes, the largest population in the world, China, has periodically banned Facebook within its borders but, something is telling me that when in only 7 years almost 600 million of the Earth's 7 billion are Facebook users we have become a society that cannot and will not live without social media.

 

So, is this going to change in the future? Will we one day just get bored with it all? No, I don’t believe we will. How can someone go from sharing so much of their life with their on average 130 ‘friends’(this may be a statistic, however, we all know people around us who are close or beyond the 500 mark) to, well, seemingly no outlet at all? From checking their phones (how convenient!) every ten minutes just in case someone has commented on that photo of them from that party they went to the night before to ‘liking’ some friends witty status update; OMG what would users do with their spare time? Facebook, though, hasn’t just been restricted to spare time now has it? There’s that colleague in the cubicle next to yours updating their status for the fourth time today, the glow of that movie goers’ iphone screen a couple of seats across from yours, and the shopper in front of you who hasn’t realised the line has moved because they have buried their heads into their phone to check the ‘top news’.

 Social media has awoken this beast inside of its users that is plain and simple addicted to attention. Oh, they may tell you it’s a useful tool to keep in touch with overseas relatives and a way to put out into the universe their point of view of current issues, but when they are status updating what they are going to eat for dinner, it begs the question- who cares and what is the point? Are we really that hungry for volumes of people to ‘see’ us? Evidently so.  Facebook will continue to grow and morph into this mega social network monster that will feed off this need people have. Facebook has also become and will continue to be a critical platform for groups to have their voice heard and in turn will revolutionise major political and cultural risings in our society. Who knows, if Facebook didn’t exist, Mubarak may still be president of Egypt. Team this with crafty marketing from partnered websites that have been specially adapted to the Facebook community, for instance, users can ‘like’ advertisements; since when do people like ads?, there isn’t much chance of people just simply ‘getting over’ this social podium.

Social media is constantly evolving. Facebook is at the forefront- regularly developing to make things more user friendly, visually pleasing and with the addition of cross media such as games and advertising; it is ticking all the boxes of what a social network user requires to continually keep them interested. And with the increase of Facebook groups gaining momentum and power, causing shifts to our social landscape, the future of social media is a permanent one and will continue to revolutionise the way we communicate.  

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First or Second Life........

Second Life is a three-dimensional virtual community created entirely by its membership. Members assume an identity and take up residence in Second Life, creating a customized avatar or personage to represent themselves. The avatar moves about in the virtual world using mouse control and intuitive keyboard buttons. Second Life’s virtual world also includes sound; wind in the swaying trees, audible conversation, and built-in chat and instant messaging. Residents buy property, start businesses, game with other residents, create objects, join clubs, attend classes, or just hang out.

It's hard to get your head around the fact that people are living out their own real lives, yet are wanting to live out a second life being themselves or someone completely different online. Are they not happy with their real life? Maybe there's things that they want to achieve in second life that they didn't in real life? Is our world that bad??

Second Life is ridiculous. I don't see the need to have another life away from your own real life. I find my life terrific. I'm extremely happy with my life and would certainly struggle to find the time to have a second life online. There must be some very unhappy people, or curious people that would spend hour after hour on Second Life living out another. They must feel that it is real enough for them to continue pursuing it.

Second Life has also been an area for businesses to be established and flourish. Businesses selling real estate, fashionable clothing, and various items for the avatars in Second Life such as new skins, clothing, accessories, hair styles, and cars using real money.

Second life was to be the 'next big thing' however it really never achieved this. There are still many that use Second Life, but certainly not the amount of users Facebook has. Universities around the country jumped on board believing Second Life was going to take off.

Second Life is used as a platform to deliver lectures and as a place for organising group assignments and having discussions. Swinburne University has taken this on board. This method is very attractive for students that are spending many hours of each day online and are already involved in Second Life. Second Life provides means for multimodal communication students can use text-based chat inside Second Life to ask questions and participate and the teacher can answer and respond at a suitable time without interruption. 

It is possible to communicate through different channels at the same time, and students can use a channel that best suits them. The use of avatars gives students some level of anonymity with students ‘hiding’ behind their avatars.The existence of multimodal and non-interfering means of communication and socialisation by using chat, instant messages and voice calls in personal and group interaction provides users a wider range of possibilities to communicate than in face-to-face sessions.

Swinburne University in Second Life

Meadows (2008:51) argues that experiences create a grounding of belief. 

“People in virtual worlds build things, use them, sell them, trade them and discuss them. When another person confirms what I am seeing, places value on it, spends time working to pay for it, buys it, keeps it, uses it, talks about it, gets emotional about it, and then sells it – this tells me there is something real happening.  The suspension of disbelief has become a grounding of belief”

Meadows comment is somewhat true. Second Life is a form of reality in the fact that it is a physicality; something that we can see and something that we can participate in. However, it is far from our actual society and cultures. Second Life is  fundamentally a glorified computer game; a place where people can escape their perceived meaningless existence.

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Mobile screen Dominates.....

Mobile phones have advanced considerably from their inception into society with change in sizes, variety, uses, and styles. I remember the day my dad purchased one of the brick phones in the early 1990's. It was a large phone with a large arial antenna, costing a ridiculous amount. Although at the time this was the latest and greatest in mobile technology. Oh how things have changed with the phone developing and changing with many varieties available. The standard phone or some call it a bar phone, flip phones, slider phones, smart phones and touch screen phones with features such as bluetooth, TV capabilities, access the web, listen to music, navigation, built in camera's and videoing and the latest phones providing an exhaustive list of applications.

According to the Herald Sun article 'Aussies hung up on smartphones', A major global survey of mobile phone owners found 52 per cent now own an iPhone or similar, up from 24 per cent last year.The research also revealed Australians' love affair with iPad-style tablet PCs is growing, with 26 per cent of us planning to buy one this year.The 43-country study, the largest of its type yet carried out, also revealed:

 


IPHONE users are the most loyal to their mobile phone operating system in the world.

HANDSET manufacturers are losing ground to content providers as access to services such as Facebook and Google grows in importance in swaying consumers on which phone to buy.

AUSTRALIAN mobile owners are heavier social networkers than most other countries.

The study also found that watching video on the run is set to boom, with more than 44 per cent of Australians interested in watching TV or movies along with video on sites such as YouTube.

There is the constant pressure that society needs to keep up with technology, and obtian the greatest and latest in technology. Majority of people that i see using mobile phones these days are using the IPhone. I personally don't have one. Throughout my years i've only ever stuck with Nokia mobiles. I've found them to be realiable and very functional containing the basics for my use, like being able to make phone calls, and texting.

In the last 18 months I've had two company mobiles, both being Blackberry's. I've found them to be a terrific mobile. The majority of my mobile use is to make phone calls to clients and other staff. I use the texting service and I can receive my emails from my PC straight to my mobile. I also use the calendar function on the phone, and this is also linked to my computer and visa verse. I find I am on the phone enough through my job role and don't feel the need to add further to this time by being glued to the web or social media sites such as FaceBook and Twitter on my mobile.

A recent study has shown young people today are so addicted to their mobile phones that if they stay away for too long they start developing withdrawal symptoms. Computers, MP3 players and televisions were also amongst the devices the youth are addicted to but mobile phones devices saw the most reliance.

A study entitled The World Unplugged Project saw over a 1,000 students around the world go without technology for a full day, which resulted in a lot of young people developing physical and mental withdrawal symptoms.Worryingly, half of the participants could not even complete the challenge.
Professor Susan Moeller, Project Leader, says; “Students talked about how scary it was, how addicted they were.“They expected the frustration. But they didn’t expect to have the psychological effects, to be lonely, to be panicked, the anxiety, literally heart palpitations.”

This is of some concern and unfortunately the mobile phone screen will become the dominant screen of the 21st century. It has gone from being a large brick phone to a mini computer. The statistics show that the phone is becoming the most dominant screen of the 21st century. Although in saying this there will still be a place for the computer and the TV and added gadgets such as palm pilots and IPads. We don't really need another screen to view movies, take photos, and access the Internet however society has gotten accustomed to having everything at their finger tips, and will not go backwards now. People like to be accessible 24/7 and feel naked without their phones beside them.Technology is forever changing and developing and the mobile phone is going to do just that and society will follow by upgrading to the latest and greatest. It will be interesting to see what the future holds....

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Social Media used by the Politicians

As it stands, the social web is bursting with opportunities for politicians to connect with voters, foster transparency, and even dispute with opponents in the same ways they have been in the traditional media for hundreds of years.

Social media like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are seen as valuable and inexpensive opportunities for politicians to promote themselves, especially in electoral campaigns. The prospect of direct contact with the public or electorate, on a continuing, unstructured basis has many advantages. Expanding contact through social networks and viral videos or messages promise to accelerate publicity while remaining person-to-person and focused.

The 2010 and 2011 elections were historic in part because information and communications technology allowed more people to participate than ever before. Through the use of social media networks such as Blogs, Twitter, email, SMS, Facebook and YouTube politicians actively reached out, connected, exchanged ideas, and promoted their points of view among the electorate to a mass audience.

We have observed the likes of Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Kevin Rud using social media successfully as part of their campaign strategy. There are over nine million Australians on Facebook and it's one of the easiest ways for voters to interact with politicians on the internet. Over one million Australians are now on Twitter giving increased scope for politicians to access the Australian people and According to YouTube people are watching 2 billion videos a day. It is believed that every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to the site. With this amount of people watching, the scope for spreading ‘the word’ for politicians is huge. 

 The most notable success for a politician using social media for an election was Barack Obama U.S. Presidential campaign of 2008.  

 

The first political campaign in history to correctly exploit the power of social media to spread a candidate’s message, gain support and get the public engaged was the 2008 campaign for the American presidency by the then Senator Barack Obama.  The Obama campaign reached 5 million supporters on 15 different social networks during the campaign season. By November 2008, Obama had approximately 2.5 million Facebook supporters, 115,000 Twitter followers, and 50 million viewers of his YouTube channel. Obama currently has in excess of 20 million Facebook followers and 40 thousand Twitter followers.

When politicians are candidates, they have this incentive to be engaging online, to be very active through social media communicating with voters to win them over. Politicians should know that engaging with voters through social media is a continuous process, and can’t simply be revived a few months or a year before the time of election. There are innovative ways to use social media to include the public in the process of governing–not just the process of campaigning.

Spin and misinterpretation can cloud a political message as it passes from candidate, to spokesperson, to media, to public. But this chain can be broken by something as simple as a Facebook update.

Julia Gillard's Facebook account

Kevin Rudd on Twitter

It seems as if our politicians have caught the social media bug, and have universally used it to connect with voters before elections. I believe that the use of these social media sites by politicians are extremely successful as part of their campaign strategy. I believe it is the way of the future and a great way for politicians to communicate with the younger generation. Now that the elections are over, there is a need for us to pay close attention to how many of the elected politicians will continue to use online social media to engage the public. I hope social media will not become just another platform for press releases, rather than a way for supporters to gain direct access.

Below are two videos that were uploaded onto YouTube at the time of the 2010 campaign by the Labor and Liberal parties.

 

 

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Are you part of the Produsage Community?

According to Bruns (2008) “There is an absence of producers, distributors, or consumers, and the presence of a seemingly endless string of users acting incrementally as content producers by gradually extending and improving the information present in the information commons, the value chain begins and ends (but only temporarily, ready for further development) with content.”

Produsage is a new craze that is sweeping across the world, and there are becoming more and more social media sites full of content that has been changed, modified and uploaded onto the internet. For example YouTube allow all kinds of amateur videos and  users to launch their new content, which is often modified original work of someone else. I believe this to be the current trend and one that is going to be around for sometime. I think society is forever changing in regards to social media trends and this is extremely popular and  more prevalent than the traditional form of content production with a producer, distributor and the consumer.

The term produsage as defined by Dr. Axel Bruns is a newer concept brought about by the development of collaborative technologies commonly referred to as web 2.0. Produsers engage not in a traditional form of content production, but are instead involved in the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement.

Below is a model showing you the content being viewed by the user and the existing content then changed by the user making them a producer and then distributing the content back out. The consumer becomes their own producer and distributor.

This model is based on this notion of ‘products’ never being fully complete but they evolve through users with an interest and/or passion for changing aspects of the project.



Below is an original video clip that was uploaded onto YouTube. The original has been customised and re- distributed on to YouTube.

ORIGINAL

REMIX

An example of amateur produsage, that resulted in the 'Most Watched' video on Youtube in 2010 and currently has 81,419,542 views since its introduction online.



Produsage and business go hand in hand. This is where amateur produsage and professional combine. It seems to be the way of the future for businesses all over the world. Using social media networks are a tremendous way to gain commercial opportunities. It can lead to user led innovation, crowd sourcing, boost brand recognition, improved brand perceptions, viral marketing, open new markets and new and further business models.

Second life is an online world, a social media network owned by Linden Lab and has been operating since 2003. This is being used for companies to reproduce themselves in a virtual world to boost brand recognition in the real world. Both Linden Lab and Second Life's Residents make money from Second Life through the trading and use of virtual real estate. Residents use the virtual real estate feature when they require permanent in-world storage of the content they have created or otherwise own.

 

A US-based real estate company Coldwell Banker is using Second Life as a way not only to position its brand in a virtual world but also offer a service dedicated to the residents living in it - virtual land services.

An additional example is the  BBC 'World Have Your Say' (WHYS) which is a global discussion. A more defined example is the television program;"The BBC news program where you set the agenda". They are 60 minute episodes, typically based around questions from their Facebook or Blog. Whilst the episode runs live, people can also contribute to the program by calling, using e-mail, twitter or SMS.

Produsage is the way of the future, with newer and better social media community websites being built over the forthcoming years. The concept of social building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement is only going to grow. People are becoming more enthralled in adding their own touch to an original piece of work, furthermore today’s generation are extremely technology savvy and are going to thrive on produsage.

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WikiLeaks

In my opinion, WikiLeaks is a new form of investigative journalism aiming to bring transparency to the deceitful antics of the troubled and competitive world. WikiLeaks provides the truth behind the lies, the real facts.

WikiLeaks "Could become as important a journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information Act." - Time Magazine

Some of this information that WikiLeaks is producing may not be surprisingly new to insiders, but seeing it in black and white these reports describing tactics, strategies and considerable double-dealing  may have beneficial effects on behaviour.

WikiLeaks is part of a changing communications culture that is reshaping the relationship between citizens and the government. New technologies have flattened the information world. Members of the public with access to a myriad of information snippets and critical opinion have become skeptical about public communications from the government and from corporations. They insist on transparency and i believe is what the people deserve. Now that there have been leaks, official and business  institutions are racing to try to understand the implications and to change their behaviour accordingly.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asserted the leak “puts people’s lives in danger, threatens our national security, and undermines US efforts to work with other countries to solve

shared problems.” 
I believe this is the rationale to shut WikiLeaks down, and ultimiately bring Assange to his knees and bring him before the US courts.

The publication of confidential information isn't going to make the world a safer or more peaceful place, however it will certainly make it more transparent. If the leaks cease to emerge, society will never have a chance to get rid of dominances like endless political insincerity, lack of respect by politicians towards the citizens of any country, the real truth behind what the government is involved in and the real facts of what takes place, not just what they think the people need to hear. For instance the leaks that have come of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. An example of this is the secret video that WikiLeaks released showing journalists and civilians being killed in Baghdad.
 

 

WikiLeaks has provided citizens with an insight as to what truly goes on. People have a right to know what their leaders do as their representatives. But these leaders keep people in the dark so that they might remain unknowing about important issues that affect their understanding, their beliefs and their lives.

Bluffing seems to be the main way of moving forward, proving that the world to this day remains a major battleground. Wikileaks is certainly trying to put a halt to this bluffing and secrecy and their investigative form of journalism is proving to have a positive effect aiming to bring transparency and i believe that this is certainly a step in the right direction to make change.

60 Minutes interviews Julian Assange

                                  

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Extremists extremely extreme!

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services.

There are an extensive variety of groups taking advantage of the current worldwide internet available. One class of group is the extremist groups taking full advantage of the internet and social media that is available to them utilising it to their advantage to spread messages and recruit new members. 

a term used to describe the actions or ideologies of individuals or groups outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards.

 It is argued whether or not the ‘Australian First Party’ fits into the category of an extremist group, in my opinion it does.

The Australia First Party (AFP) is an incorporated body, and as such, has become a federally registered political party under the auspices of the Australian Electoral Act. The Australia First Party has far-right ideals which can be seen as nationalistic and anti-multicultural.The party stands to abolish multiculturalism, and introduce a ‘zero net’ immigration policy meaning that the number of immigrants will be decided by how many Australians leave each year.

The Australian First Party has eight core policies:

1. Ensure Australia retains full independence 
2. Rebuild Australian manufacturing industries 
3. Control foreign ownership
4. Reduce and limit immigration
5. Abolish multiculturalism
6. Introduce Citizen's Initiated Referendums
7. Strengthen the family
8. Strive to rebuild a united Australia

It doesn’t take long to work out that Australia is built on being a very multicultural nation. The mix of different nationalities and the various cultures and backgrounds that come with this is what makes Australia’s culture what it is today. Take a walk down to your local shops and you are guaranteed to see many different races from many different countries all over the world.

To have a federally registered political party to contain core policies like reduce and limit immigration and abolish multiculturalism I think stinks. I believe these to be extreme policies and place the AFP under the banner of an extremist group with ideologies outside the perceived political centre of society. Who does this party think they are. We are so blessed to have a country like we do. Fresh water, health system, houses with heating and cooling, freedom of speech, and education just to name a few luxuries. Our nation is blessed, why shouldn’t we share it with those less fortunate, or those fleeing war torn countries of the world.

In saying this, out of many extremist groups I would say the AFP is mild compared to some extremist groups polluting the internet with their propaganda. Some common groups are National Alliance, Stormfront and Aryan Nations, and Ku Klux Klan. These groups are embracing the technological advances to spread their messages of hate and recruit members.

These extremists along with the AFP are utilising the resources at their disposal. Their own websites and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and blog posts, and Youtube many of these extremist groups are projecting their messages and views with the aim of recruiting new members to their groups. Internet provides freedom of speech with the option to remain anonymous.

I believe this to be a serious concern when the internet is so readily available and there are many young people, uneducated and often naïve that could be negatively influenced from these extremist groups.

Below is a promotional video that the AFP has on Youtube: 

 

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