Group items tagged

I really liked the idea from this week's reading that we should look to gaming for the future of interactive interfaces for social media. This article explains the ways that computing could be transforming in the future with motion sensing input devices like the Xbox Kinect. It's crazy to think that some of these things are possible!

This is the social networking homepage of a online gaming website, IGN. I wanted to share this because it seems to overtly combine the gaming and social elements of social media. It also, similar to the AXE site, allows users to follow certain products and claim an identity based on what products the user owns in comparison to other members of the community. Within the site itself members have some level of gaining badges and competing by listing and comparing their games and interacting with each other. Also, on the level of competition, there are prizes available for different interactions on this site which further invokes the sense of gaming and competition.

This article examines the use of emotional attachment and building of unique stories to create buzz through social media sites like twitter and facebook.

This is an article that responds to some of the issues brought up last class (March 20) about employers asking for facebook passwords.

The idea behind this is to allow for an experience closer to that we have in the "real world." The comments section offers some interesting counterpoints to Terry's arguments.

Lovink's latest book is all about social media. It addresses a number of the critiques we offered in class - which is not to say it answers or does away with them - but also reinforces that he offers less a theory than a report or journalistic take. (One example is the way he looks at the uneven use of blogging world wide, so that blogging becomes much less monolithic in this account.)

This is the hypertextual poem by Stephanie Strickland called "The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot," to which Hayles refers in her article "Electronic Literature: What Is It?" Hayles's idea that we must recognize "the specificity of new media without abandoning the rich resources of traditional modes of understanding language, signification, and embodied interactions with texts" is absolutely at work in this poem.

This probably seems ridiculous that I'm sharing this, but this directly relates to a paper I wrote last semester about the rhetoric employed by AXE and now I think they're making a move that applies to this class. Here we have some combination of McLuhan's idea of media being an extension of man and we see elements of IF as people actively contribute the making of a graphic novel and then are characterized by the creators for their input all the while fusing their digital selves to some sort of global and digital AXE alliance. Imagine how difficult it would be to by a different product once you become part of their story and your digital self participates (to channel the ideas of Barry Brummett) in this particular reality.

Really fascinating take on McLuhan and many of the other writers we've been discussing. It also pertains to my interest in both sustainability and digital media.

Interesting in terms of McLuhan and discussions last class.

This short article has a unique commentary on the "blog bubble" from a business perspective, hinting that corporate blogging is on the rise and that social media will burst long before blogs. It's something to go along with our reading this week.

Article on the use of milblogs and other Web 2.0 technology in the military.

You can take or leave the comic, depending on your tastes, but the idea of Umwelt and its applicability to our subject matter is fascinating.

This article argues that social media aren't just about exhibitionism, and that we can instead view the Web as a painting. Instagram and Pinterest are picturesque, which he defines as "something that is more pleasing in a mediated representation."

So this isn't directly related to computer technology, but the review is reminiscent of McLuhan and how the medium is the message. The quality and style of the actual film seems to be on par with the ground breaking trilogy that precede it, but the look of the movie on screen is having some negative effects on viewers' reactions. With the move towards HD and now 3-D, it seems higher resolution doesn't always guarantee a better viewing experience.

Another step forward in the "open source ecology" type world. Parts are still relatively expensive, but it's heading in the right direction

Twitter etiquette - knowing when to be personal and when to be professional - or recognizing the lack of a line between the two.

What strikes me as especially interesting about this book review is that it emphasizes and leads with the buzz surrounding its predominantly digital publication instead of the controversy about the popularity of hardcore erotic literature for women.

An article addressing how twitter can actually be damaging to use in a crisis.

Keeping track of passwords is definitely a hassle for most of us, so a service that groups all of them didn't seem far off. It will be interesting to see how this develops, and if it will catch on and be secure.