Humanities Computing

I don't have much experience with video games (I still rock out with Sonic on my Sega Genesis), but this could be a gateway game for me. I love the concept of adapting and crossing lines of genres and mediums, but it's interesting to note some of the dramatic differences and losses that must take place in translation. In this example there are some real game changers (I'm not sorry for the pun) involving plot and narrative. It's as if Dante has suddenly been inspired by Mario and must save the princess from the castle. I wonder what the equivalent of Yoshi would look like in the 7th ring of Hell...

This article touches on a lot of the topics that keep surfacing in our classroom discussions about narcissism and how we use social media to communicate with others and share our own identities. It also expresses some of the concerns that I am often torn about; how much privacy can we have if we are going to use this technology, and why aren't we more aware of it.

These are the kinds of risks today's digital users face without even realizing it. How many of us actually sit down with a site before registering for an account and read through the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy? Or if you do, how far do you get before you're bored to death or completely confused? This kind of stuff terrifies me. But why are we at fault? Does this mean I have to delete my Pinterest account?

Oddly enough, one of my favorite bloggers, Nathan Bransford, tackled the concept of the blog bubble bursting, which is interesting. His argument isn't as important here as the massive conversation below it.

This article goes along with Lovink's idea in "MyBrain.net" that we "constantly login, create profiles in order to present our 'selves' on the global market place of employment, friendship and love. . . Trust is the oil of global capitalism and the security state, required by both sides in any transaction or exchange" (4-5). It looks like identity fraud is what happens when we trust too easily on social media sites.

"Kony2012," an activist movement aimed at arresting Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, has recently harnessed the power of social media (especially Facebook and Twitter) to spread its message. This is just one of the articles I've found that examines the role of social media in modern-day activism.

This article touches upon the benefits of incorporating social media into business practices and explains how anyone, even those who aren't familiar with social media, can learn to harness their power.

Well, they didn't have anyone nag the $1 million prize for a full compromise, but security analysts did find a few things to patch up anyways.

We talked about "digital badges" in class a few weeks ago. This article explains how a competition, "Badges for Lifelong Learning," could allow digital badges to become legitimate evidence of non-traditional, "DIY" learners' skills and knowledge. Digital badges come into the picture because these individuals won't have a degree to show for their work.

I was taught web design based on a set of pretty intense basic rules (like use the color blue as I mentioned last class), but here is an awesome site that not only tells you the rules, but how and why to break them. The text and tables concepts especially apply here.

Great article highlighting reasons why individuals suffering from eating disorders respond so well to blogs.

Too much too fast. This article looks back on the dotcom crash (yet another thing I'd never heard of until reading Lovink's "MyBrain.net").

vivid use of content on top of background image

Cool spatial/pictorial layout.

Cool super-minimal no-style website.

Cool super-minimal no-style website.

Apocalypse of mediocrity or community of readers as writers? And who decides what counts as boring?

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

Interesting article on the use of social media to inform residents about Mexico's cartel violence.

Another resource for thinking about design.