World War? or Cyber War?

Will our lives get easier? better? Is technology the answer?

There are many strong assumptions that computers can make our lives better. Technology has already programmed itself into our minds that without it we would be lost. In some ways, we would. What would we do if the internet went down? Phone networks were turned off? It is possible. 

“Authorities can shut down mobile networks whenever they find it politically expedient” 

Evgene Morozov, 2011, The Net Delusion. No phone, no friends, no life? 

It is, almost sad to think that our lives are based around technology. We live for a device, but what can we do, its what we know. 

Television series, Revolution. Life without lights.

"We are entering the era of robots at war"
So, basically we have no more normal fighting on battlefields against men in armor, we have robots.
Remote-controlled drones, bomb dismissal  and unmanned fighting platforms to take out terrorists in Afghanistan. But there will be more.

“The human is becoming the weakest link in defense systems, unmanned systems offer a path around the those limitations. They can fly faster and turn harder, without worrying about the squishy part in the middle….the unmanned fighter jet will totally trump the human pilot eventually, purely because of physics” 

So, what are the concerns of war of virtuality? Cyberwarfare. 

It is known as politically motivated hacking to conduct sabotage according to Wikipedia. Richard Clarke and Robert Knake (2010) know this as " actions of a nation-state to penetrate another nations computers or networks for the purpose of causing damage or disruption". 

What does this mean exactly? 

It could mean more combats with explosives, bullets and missiles.  Countries are at war through hacking and computing, and it is happening now.

There is virtual war taking place in Korean Peninsula. Jarno Limnéll, doctor in military science told the Huffington Post UK that a "cyber war arms race" is now in operation on the peninsula, and that it represents a new and dangerous frontier for both sides.

It is worrying to think that we could be at war with countries in general, but computers and abilities to hack into our computers, with ability to change everything. Who ever thought World War Three would be virtual? 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet-security/9943388/Cyber-warfare-more-must-be-done.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/10/north-korea-cyber-war-threatens-real-war_n_3052026.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberwarfare

Divided by technology

Globalization is the term to describe world connectivity. We all have a cultural similarity through media economic, cultural and media connections. Sociologist Mcluhn argued that we are now known as a global village through the world wide web. We have increased speed of communication, abilities to read and see global news and have become move involved and aware of other societies and countries. However...
Do we all have the internet? 
Are we really all connected? 
What about the...

The gap between those countries with and without technology is increasing. It has been recently reported that a third of the world's population is unable to access the internet, with 1 billion people still not owning a mobile phone. I'm using the internet, playing music, my phone is currently next to me with access to the internet, we are lucky. 

"We have been monitoring ICT prices now for four years, and there have been a 30% drop in price of ICT in the past four years" Susan Teltscher, head of ITU'S data and statistics division. 
However, the poorest countries who have access have been seen to pay the most. 

Affordability: Singapore (pictured) was highlighted as one of the cheapest places for internet

Singapore is at the top of the 161 countries of internet affordability, while Madagascar came last. The cost of connectiviity in Africa last year was 20 times higher than in Europe and almost seven times more than Americas. Recent reports show that only 70% of Americans have internet access. 

Yet these countries cannot access internet, between 75% and 90% jobs require at least some computer use, and it is said internet can improve children's educational performance. 

We are incredibly lucky that we have internet access, compared to those who do not. It is sad to think that we have all this knowledge of computing and technology and others would not know what to do with it. 

http://www.ibtimes.com/one-third-worlds-population-using-internet-developing-nations-showing-biggest-gains-795299#

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2216625/Report-shows-1billion-people-dont-mobile-phone-half-world-access-internet.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8568681.stm

http://infed.org/biblio/globalization.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/social-care-network/2012/oct/17/digital-divide-tackled-social-care

Time fly's when you're having fun.

How many hours would you spend playing a game?

Two, six, even nine, when we are totally engrossed into something that we do not stop to eat or shower we just flow. Flow is described as being 'in the zone', unaware of all that is happening around us. Although within some cases of straight focus on games it could be self-destruction, but if you have a goal to meet, there is no stopping us.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in other words; (Cheeks-sent-me-high) defines flow as when your challenges meet your skills. He suggests that when a person is completely involved in something concentration levels are high, your target is to succeed is clear therefore to succeed you know what must be done, showing that challenge and skill are in balance. He describes the flow experience as addictive yet a rewarding feeling.

The graph above displays flow. The concept explains that if you are skillful, yet unchallenged you are bored, however if you are unskilled but challenge you are likely to be stressed out. Would you rather be skilled and bored? or unskilled and stressed?

This can be shown in a daily work routine, we can be stressed in a work place and completely oblivious to others as we are completely focused on challenge yet our skills will be lower. 'Mike' suggests that we could deduct stress by reducing challenge, and increasing skills. Asking for help and improving skills with training until we get the perfect flow balance.


So, flow occurs doing playing video games, sports games, work placements, daily routines, yet it can even be developed through education. Kids in schools getting into the flow of working and succeeding. He argues that when a student is doing a task involving group work, or individual assessments to meet goals and solve problems. Flow is at its lowest in schools when it is audio and visual learning rather than kinetic.
If someone is given an activity to complete it could be boring, therefore teachers must make the activities fun for the pupils to get their full attention. Games for example, always get us motivated therefore we could apply gaming with education. Challenge the student, but keep the skills up high to complete the goal and grade.

http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/blogs/flow

http://www.edutopia.org/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-motivating-people-learn

Two can play at that game.

What is a game? 

A video game? A game of football? A drinking game perhaps? 

The word game has so many possibilities of what is a game. There are so many games in life. Sports, playground games, adult games, outside, inside, board games, gambling, broadcast media games, online games, video games, paper games, new media games such as; Guitar hero, and Rock Band. These are our newest craze. Well, that and the iPhone game '4pics1word'. 

As kids we would pretend, use our imagination and be different people everyday. We would play inside with boxes, dress ups, even the furniture, we would play outside with the trees, our bikes, even just running around was considered as fun. After we grew out of 'tig', we found more challenging games such as; Monopoly and Twister. Eventually it led to virtual characters, still pretending and still socializing just through our technology. Or at least, this is how it was when I was a kid. 

Today seems to have changed, and definitely challenged the structure of child and adult hood. We hear kids talking about the newest 'Halo' games, and how they defeated their opponent. 

What ever happened to playing dolls? 

Video gaming goes way back...

1952 - A.S. Douglas OXO

1958 - Tennis for two

1961 - Space war

1971 - Computer space

1972 - The Magnavox odyssey - the first battery powered console, without sound.

1972 - PONG

1978 - Space Invaders

1981 - Donkey Kong

1982 - Pacman

Mario, Sonic, Crash, Tetris, Mortal Combat, all late 80s and early 90s. 

As well as the development of games, the consoles have rapidly changed. Xbox, PS3 soon to be PS4, Nintendo & Wii. 

We use games for entertainment, a leisure activity. A pass time when waiting for the bus, we play 'Angry birds' or similar on our phones. However, gaming is also work. The companies that create the games have workers, those chose to work to design, produce and play games. Not only that but gaming is a form of community. Take 'World of Warcraft' as an example, this game is a virtual online game in which people can chat to others, they become a clan and help each other out when needed. 

The new technology has not only updated the older generation but the younger, many of the  younger generation have never lived without it. Media have seen issues with the gaming of younger people. They have believed that certain video games have led to child behaviour problems. Not only aggressive behaviour but some have influenced them to take action as they would in a game. The Jamie Bulger story is a solid case of this violent child behaviour caused through video gaming. Another example would be Psychologist Bandura et al, study called 'Bobo doll'. They studied into the behaviour of children, using a bobo doll and a hammer. The children were shown a clip of an adult hitting with a hammer, therefore the initial reaction was to copy this behaviour, attempting to show that kids will copy adults, no matter what the activity, wrong or right. Although games have restrictions, therefore they should not be accessed the these games however, restrictions haven't seemed to have worked in some cases. Media may blame the games, others could blame the primary socialization, however; childhood is in need of being brought back, where a child is a child. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/29274.stm

Once upon a time... became digital.

We know that the technology we have today will eventually increase to something new, 'Google glasses blog', says it all, but imagine a time before we had this technology. A time when the mobile phone was the latest technology. No, not a smart phone. One that called out, send SMS and played 'Snake'. The people who first received these technologies must have been thrilled, amazed of how fast you could talk to someone and how far it could go. Are we taking advantage of our advantages? 

We may get all excited about the new phone or laptop but do we appreciate it as much as others used too. Our technologies today are incredible and we would not know what to do without them. Although, we all loved the traditional Snake.

The speed and distance that information can travel at today is intense. We get messages instantly, and can get them from a global distance. We started with electronic mail, chat rooms (MSN) and now we have social networking and Skype. Not only do we have fast messaging but have you seen how fast we can get news feeds. Twitter is one of the most popular social networking sites available, if you follow BBC, or the Guardian and of course, our favourite celebrities (as long as it's not stalking) the news is instantly tweeted. 
Our digital era got lucky. 

So, we have instant messaging, global communications, books in computers, what else? 

Ever had a story told through platforms of episodes with a click of button? 

The younger generations of students have. Inanimate Alice is a online media designed for pre-teen students for interest, academic learning and understanding. Watching the episodes it may not have interest to me, I would much rather read a book but the interaction for children, and young students would make school, and reading much more interesting and fun rather than just going to the library and picking up a book with pages of words, kids do not really care about. Where are the pictures? 

Mediated technologies are becoming more and more popular, although often are for entertainment, some form a purpose of learning. 

http://inanimatealice.com/episode1/index.html

http://www.inanimatealice.com/index.html

What ever happened to just talking in a bar?

How do you get your news? Paper, internet, twitter? 

The word data inevitably creates image of numbers and statistics but those numbers are now able to tell a story. In the past many would argue newspapers were the way forward, but not today, with our many digital media, news stories are rolling as events happen from sources through networks of social connections. This is why today we have 'Data Journalism'. The increase of digital technologies allow numerical data to be used for information distribution through Infographics. 

Infographics are presentations of data intending to show complex information in a clear, and understanding way. They also present the information in a more interesting manor than just long winded text. In newspapers, Infographics are commonly used to show the weather, as well as maps, site plans, and graphs for statistical data. 

A journalists job is to provide the correct information to the public, however, they are also in competition to find the best, newest and most newsworthy stories first before their colleagues or rivals. Using data can help perform this investigation. Knowing the data of information can give another angle on a story. We are always after a new angle, therefore, we need to know our data. 

                            

Las Vegas Sun’s 2010 Do No Harm series on hospital care 

The Sun news found more than 2.9 million hospital bill records, which revealed 3600 preventable injuries, infections and surgical mistakes and identified more than 300 cases in which patients died. It is easy to understand the information this way, and had real impact on the public. 

Although data is hard to understand and quite difficult to place into visualization however, journalists are able to look beyond the confusion to find the secret stories. Data journalism could be the future of news. 

http://datajournalismhandbook.org/1.0/en/introduction_4.html

Have you got your Wiki Barnstar badge yet?

Everyone has or will used Wikipedia at some point. It is used for word definitions, home work, referencing, general information. Everything is on Wikipedia, so why shouldn't we use it?
The English Wikipedia page was founded in 2001 and has gained 4 million articles since. It originally was set up as a free encyclopedia, open to anyone to edit or delete the articles to what they want or how they think it should be. Jimbo Wales the co-founder and promoter of Wikipedia was the first edit to the pages in 2001. 
Linking with the open access blog previously, it shows that it is free and anyone is able to access the information however, anyone is also allowed to edit the information causing it to be inaccurate information. 

Each contributor has their own page of their edits, and Wikipedia rewards them with 'Barnstars'. They are badges to place on their pages to show their hard work. It can be pictured as giving Scouts their camping badges for doing the ironing, putting up a tent, and first aid. Although it is easy to joke about these, it is taken seriously and people are proud of their accomplishments in contributing to Wikipedia. There are so many types of Barnstars available ;
The original, Random acts of kindness, Surreal, Anti-Vandalism, Anti-flame, Philosophy
...And so many more

"We do not expect you to trust us" - Wikipedia 

However, Wikipedia not being fact has relevance to Journalism. Not all the information a journalist is given is accurate, it could be manipulated, incorrect, a lie, we can never be sure on whether or not someone is truly being honest. Hope is the only answer.

So do we trust our old friend Wiki?
From the way it is available to be edited we shouldn't but it has become such a huge part of researching it would be difficult to change our ways all for the fact it may have been slightly tweaked. We just have to hope that it is true, a valid or else school kids will probably fail their homework assignments. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.brisbanegrammar.com/blogs/library/?p=290