Essay, internet politics.

- Thursday, October 22, 2009

e-Democracy and the 2007 Australian Federal Elections

The advance in internet and communication technology is currently revolutionizing politics on a local, state, federal and international level. Communications between politicians or MPs and the public community is shifting towards the internet in order to connect with a larger public voting base. This shift has furthermore connected Politian’s to differing demographics of the information age which they would not have connected to in traditional political avenues.

The emergence of the internet and associated communication technologies has lent politics to a new medium. The combination of politics and the internet is called e-democracy.
The concept of e-democracy is associated with efforts to broaden political participation by enabling citizens to connect with one another and with their representatives via new information and communication technologies(1).

This particular definition emphases the political stance gained by political parties. On the other hand Kenneth Hacker and Jan van Dijk delve deeper into digital democracy as:

The use of information and communication technology (ITC) and computer-mediated communication (CMC) in all kinds of media for purposes of enhancing political democracy or the participation of citizens in democratic communication. A collection of attempts to practice democracy without the limits of time, space, and other physical conditions, using ITC and CMC instead, as an addition, not a replacement for traditional ‘analogue’ political practices(2).

Digital democracy or e-democracy impacts upon relationships between the political and the public in a positive manor. E-democracy is seen to strengthen the relationship by humanizing the politician. The internet poses the potential to make politics freely accessible and democratic forcing politicians to become more open, accountable and human(6). Internet politics involve the citizen more in the actual decision-making process, by consulting and also enabling the ability to discuss and deliberate government policy proposals(3). The discussion and deliberation between the public and politic allows an interaction that strengthens the support or vote the public has for a particular party.

The 2007 Australian elections between the Howard (Liberal) and Rudd (Labour) government saw the first e-democracy campaigning in the country. The increase in professional mainstream use of political websites and blogs illustrate the way in which Australian political parties have utilized a new form of media to tackle the lack of mainstream coverage and successfully re-stage political argument in the cyber world rather than televised sound(5). The Howard government had been in power from 1995 until Kevin Rudd took the upper hand at an early stage in the election by utilizing communication technologies to his advantage. The 2007 election was the first time in Australian politics that the internet has been used as a political campaign and outlet to advertise to voters.

The rise and popularity of the internet has encouraged political parties to set up websites to directly communicate with voters.
Election campaigns in other countries have utilised the internet in producing websites for candidates and their parties. The Australian social media mirrored the American internet campaign and produced election sites including a special election2007 channel created by Google providing tools to chart trends, access electorate and candidate information, electorate boundaries over Google Maps and hyperlinks to YouTube political video clip channels(4).

The YouTube debate and rebuttal from candidate to candidate interested most internet users, capturing a demographic that was previously unreachable. Over 600 videos were posted on YouTube; the 40 videos by Howard’s Liberal Party had 140, 00 views, however Rudd’s Labor Party posted 64 videos which received 460, 000 views and also 1.5 million views across channels and social networking sites(4).

Figure 1. Australian Labor Party

In conjunction with the election2007 channel, social networking sites also created election ‘channels’ and selected candidates were invited to join(4). Social networking allowed politicians to have a direct point of contact with the Australian public who could voice their opinions to Howard or Rudd without going through the traditional chains of government.
The initiative allowed politicians to control the profile and image they presented and provided them with the opportunity to communicate directly with Myspace members, a demographic often difficult to reach(4).
The social networking sites dramatically increased the popularity of Kevin Rudd to the point where his campaign team requested Facebook to increase the individual friend limit(6).

The internet opened up a demographic that was previous unreachable in previous traditional campaigning strategies. Labor leader Kevin Rudd was able to use the internet to his advantage and became a successful campaign tool. Kevin Rudd was able to provoke a greater interest via internet campaigning, allowing users to further engage in his political ideas through hyperlinks between social networking sites, YouTube and other political channels. John Howard’s party lacked dedication towards internet campaigning which ultimately lead to the loss of the cyber demographic to Kevin Rudd(4).

Digital democracy is way of increasing the public’s involvement in politics and leads to a stronger and united political nation. Political internet outlets provide a greater sense of community by humanizing politicians and perceiving them as another common person.

The internet is an ever expanding tool in connecting and sharing with other users. It is a public forum that only now the government and politics have recognized the incredible power it holds. By evolving to new communication technologies of campaigning, the political fight has become stronger and seemingly only won by those who gain the support of the internet demographic through dedication to the internet. Digital democracy will impact on democracy in the offline world but will enhance it rather than detract from the political.

The federal elections of 2007 demonstrate the power of e-democracy and popularity of the internet. The shift towards integration of media communication in campaign strategies still support traditional media campaigning but have the potential to become a mainstream tool(4).


Reference List

Books:

(1) Chadwick, A. 2006, Internet Politics: States, Citizens and New Communication Technologies
(2) Hacker, K.L and Van Dijk, J. 2000, Digital Democracy: Issues of theory and practice, SAGE Publications, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi.

Internet:

(3) Backhouse, J (2007) e-Democracy in Australia: the Challenge of Evolving a Successful Model, Electronic Journal of e-Government Volume 5 Issue 2 [online] http://www.ejeg.com/volume-5/vol5-iss2/Backhouse.pdf [access date: 21/10/09]

(4) Backhouse, J (2008) Election Campaigning in the Era of Web 2.0 and Social Media, found in – Remenyi, D (2008) 4th International Conference on e-Government [online] http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vxs1GhszvFMC&oi=fnd&pg=PA55&dq=e-democracy+rudd+and+howard+elections&ots=imgEt_5kLZ&sig=UBthG_WgngGC3Wz-6gw87LVFoww#v=onepage&q=&f=false [access date: 21/10/09]

(5) Griffiths, M (2008) Participation Verite: Lessons from Australian New Media Democracy 2007-08 – found in Hahamis, P (2008) Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on e-Government [online] http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=KjALtIPW14AC&oi=fnd&pg=PA299&dq=e-democracy+rudd+and+howard+elections&ots=k7DZ3wTCju&sig=uRwwC4Cojd5hJjwyVPSTuJQ4cjs#v=onepage&q=&f=false [access date: 21/10/09]

(6) Hills, R (2007) Politics turns to the web [online] http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22530075-27197,00.html [access date: 21/10/09]

Citations:

Books:

Dahlberg, L. and Siapera, E. 2007, Radical Democracy and the Internet: Interrogating theory and practice, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, USA.

Hague, B.N. and Loader, B.D 1999, Digital Democracy: Discourse and Decision Making in the Information Age, Routledge, New York, USA.

Vicktor, M. and Lazer, D. 2007, Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government, The MIT Press, USA.

Webster, F. 2001, Culture and Politics in the Information Age: A new politics?, Routledge, New York, USA.

Internet:

Fishlock, S (2007) The Internet’s role in the 2007 Federal Election [online] http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/ramblings/the_internet_and_the_2007_federal_election [access date: 21/10/09]
Figure 1. Australian Labor Party (posted 6/08/07) Why Vote Labor? Kevin Rudd tells you his plan for Australia [online] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQg34SW4Oz0&NR=1 [access date: 22/10/09]

ireport

- Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Extra

- Thursday, October 8, 2009

Some extra stuff we could do was extend on the topics spoken about in the lectures. I have expanded on the gaming lecture so see that lecture for the explaination of my link the gaming world.

i-report

-

The i-report was created in a group and is uploaded Amy's blog.
For now I can only give the link to her blog because I do not have the file to upload myself until I manage to get a copy of it from her. When I have the copy it will be uploaded =]

Layout.

-

HELLO HELLO
OVER HERE.

If you haven't noticed yet. I went that EXTRA mile and figured out how to change my template to one i downloaded off the internet. Now it looks pretty =]

Woops

-

So I forgot to respond to a news blogger.
Well I have but I can't find it in the comment list so I will link the page.
The article was about Wikipedia and commented about how it is good for finding random information and that someone edited a page about a famous person saying that the person had died and wikipedia had to apologise.

Lecture Summary

-

Week 7:

For week 7's lecture we had Stephen Stockwell as a lecturer and he talked about politics and the internet.

Cyberpolitics: the politics that exist on the internet. This includes discussions of politics or political activties that occur on or between bloggers, gamers, etc.

E-Domocracy: is the intervention and contribution of the internet on "real world" politics that exists off the internet. Political campaiging to minster's use of twitter and youtube (or other media genres) all coexisst under the umberella of e-domocracy as it is the governement's use of the internet.

Stephen spoke about the media and the "public sphere" and also about free speech and censorship.

More on the "clean feed"

-

ISPs give clean feed filter a technical green-light
David Ramli 24 July, 2009 15:51:00

The majority of Internet filter trial participants report no slowdowns or accidental blockings despite ISP filtering.
More than half of the Internet service providers (ISPs) taking part in the Federal Government’s ISP filtering trial have reported minimal speed disruptions or technology problems.
Of the nine participating ISPs, iPrimus, Netforce, Webshield, Nelson Bay Online and OMNIconnect told ARN they had seen no slowdowns in Internet speeds or problems with the filtering solutions in place.
Of the remaining four ISPs, Tech2U and Highway1 were unable to respond by time of publication while Unwired and Optus refused to comment.
iPrimus Australia CEO, Ravi Bhatia, said his company’s ISP filtering trial, which must be opted into by its customers, had “probably involved a few thousand users”.
“The users have not experienced any problems, they haven’t experienced any service degradation so it’s been a pretty good experience,” he said.
The results would be finalised by next week, Bhatia said.
Webshield managing director, Anthony Pillion, said his entire customer base of a few thousand end-users experienced no slow-down in Internet speeds whatsoever.
“From a technical perspective we’re more than confident that if the government decided to roll out a mandatory Internet filter based on or around an Australian Communications and Media Authority [ACMA] blacklist or subset thereof, then it can be done without any impact whatsoever to the speed of the Internet,” he said.
Although OMNIconnect’s managing director, Peter Hutton, received no complaints about slowed speeds or technical problems after the filtering hardware was in place, he said the blacklist provided by ACMA had banned legitimate websites and caused customer dissatisfaction.
“Some of the customers complained because the block list really hadn’t been moderated well enough,” OMNIconnect chief technician, Graeme Lee, said. “One in particular was a site called Redtube.com. The whole site had been blocked and it was just a standard pornography site,” Hutton said.
“Relating to that particular site we did have complaints that people couldn’t get through to it. They opted out of the trial straight away. It was a very embarrassing experience.”
ACMA refused to confirm or deny the website's legality or if it was currently on the blacklist and advised users to read its guidelines for rating internet content.
One common issue with most of the ISPs was the lack of voluntary participants, especially with companies using an opt-in system.
Managing director of Nelson Bay Online, Patrick Sayer, said only 1 per cent of his entire customer base decided to opt-into the system, resulting in just 15 users.
When asked if he believed the trials provided a fair representative study, Hutton’s answer was an unequivocal “no”.
“That’s why we’ve asked for an extension to continue the trial till the end of this month and I understand a number of other ISPs have done the same thing,” he said.
The results come on the back of earlier comments from the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy that the current trial’s success or failure would help form much of the government’s opinions on mandatory nation-wide ISP filtering.
“We'll be guided by that trial. We've always said, consistently, we'll be guided by the trial,” the Minister said on the ABC’s Q&A program.

From my understading, Kevin Rudd wants to turn Australia's internet into communist China. This is pretty much impossible because it takes away the rights we have as Australian citizens. We have the right to free speech and the internet is medium of communication and by blocking and censoring the internet is taking away a form of expression. The filters will slow down the already slow connection we have in Australia. On top of this, internet savy people (mostly the reason why the clean feed will be put into place) will be creating proxy servers to get around the censorship and leaving the rest of us to suffer with the concequences of their internet behaviour. Why should the general Australian public suffer while it is a small minority group that has encouraged this type of censorship.

In the way of censorship, this can dictate what we can access and view on the internet. Someone might decide that youtube is offencive and block the site; then what happens to those who use the site to promote their videos gain access to the public domain?

Yes can see why the clean feed sounds like a good idea. To prevent sex acts on the internet and terrorism and what not, but what happens to the "Australia is a free country! We are democratic not communist",this just happens to fly out the window. Australian internet, say hello to China.

Lecture Summary

- Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Week 10's lecture was about gaming. How exciting. I hate games with a passion. They bore me and I seriously do not have any inclination to play them. From a personal view I think they are a complete waste of time and a waste of important brain cells which could be doing way more important things, like possible making friends or doings something to benefit the real world, not a computerised relatity.

Josh was talking about how there are different mediums and generes of games. I have herd from my gaming nerd brother about first person shooter and other genres of games that he plays, for example counter strike and world of war craft (compeletly pointless if you ask me). Console games are not as bad, although they are highly addicitve. Console games carry less of a social stigma because games like gutiar hero are actually semi-cool.

No matter what it comes to a point where gaming is taken overboard and a prime example of this is my brother. He is year 12 and spends every waking hour (other than the time he is at school) on the computer playing online games. He has no job and spends no joke possible about 30 hours over the weekend on the games. He sits in his bedroom on the computer all day everyday and only comes out for necessity then (I am not joking) runs back to the computer. I has come to the point where I think his interaction with real people is affected. He doesn't think about anything else except for the games he plays and does not hang out with his friends other then when he sees them at school. It's really sad because he constantly upgrades his computer and has made our parents fork out $300+ for a wireless gaming internet modem and also 80 bucks a month for faster internet connection so it doesn't "lag" his computer.

Personally I think games have ruined the lives and future prospects of many people.
SAY NO TO GAMING.

Lecture Summary

- Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Week 9


Jason took this lecture.. and I'm pretty sure he doesn't understand how to tie his tie correctly; maybe the wonkie look is his style?

This week he talked to us about flash and photoshop and how we should "explore" programs rather then use the bare minimum. He told us to use tutorials and use the INTERNET to help our creative mind blossom.

Here are his lecture notes...
  • think about what you want to do before you start. no need to download crazy out there software just to re-size a picture or what not.
  • good software is deep, takes years to learn how to be a pro at it
  • start playing around, learn the basics, common features
  • save every time you do something under different names, do not write over the same file.
  • help is NOT helpful for real help go to a specific site that is about the program, then search on that
  • ironically, the moment you learn the software, a new package or new version will replace it
  • the most easiest things to do on the software are usually the most boring....explore around
  • have fun!

Artworks

- Monday, October 5, 2009

This weeks task is to post artworks that we have created. During my five years at high school I actually studied art for all those years (although I don't think I was very good). Here is a few examples of what have produced.


The first is a life drawing piece which I managed to draw in 10 minutes. It was weird because the lady was naked.... and a hippy and maybe she was French, I need say no more. I think this was in 2007.

The next is an extension of this class. I used the outline and collaged either the inner or outter with small images.


This piece is a gaint box and you were supposed to stand inside. The topic was senses and the walls were reflective. I made this after seeing an artwork by Yayoi Kusama at GoMA, which uses the concept of infinity by the use of reflections through mirrors. (2007)





The last one I would like to share was something I made last year in year 12. It is made out of stockings painted with fluro paint to glow under UV lights. It took me almost three hours to attach about 30 stockings to the roof of the art gallery at school.







- Sunday, October 4, 2009


This weeks exercise was to participate in politics via the internet.


E-PETITION


The e-petition I signed up to was to petition against the sale of public assets which said it was going to be sent to Anna Bligh.







LOCAL, STATE AND FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVES




The member for my local electorate is Alex Douglas, member for Gaven.






The Queensland Permier is Anna Bligh. She is on Master Chef ;)




The Prime Minister is Kevin Rudd.


The Federal member for Gold Coast is Ronald Boswell.


THE LAST TIME MY MEMBER SPOKE IN PARLIAMENT


The time Alex Douglas spoke in parliament was on Septmeber 17, 2009. He spoke about the Personal Properties Securities (Commonwealth Power) Bill. The Bill was about enabling the commonwealth parliament to enfoce national laws for the regulation of personal propery securities and to establish and maintian a national register for all personal property security intersests. Alex Douglas supported this Bill.


WHAT IS BARACK OBAMA UP TO TODAY?



Today Barack Obama is on the David Letterman show! David Letterman didn't sleep with all his co-workers... wait or maybe he did?


"I was actually black before the election" - Barack Obama








CONTACT YOUR LOCAL MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT


In ways of contacting Alex Douglas I found his website and sent him an email stating the following about his speech:

Dear Mr Douglas,

As a student at Griffith University and also a resident of your electorate I would like to say I do agree with your support your speech of the Personal Property Securities (Commonwealth Power) Bill. I believe you adressed the issues of differing state legistations and I do agree with a blanket bill that clearly states the legistation equalling this out between the states.

Kind Regards,

Clachere Beard

I also found by perusing his site that he also has a twitter and facebook account.

"THE CLEAN FEED"

Once typing "clean feed australia" into google the top sites seem to be anti clean feed.

So is the clean feed?

The Australian Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet for all Australians. This plan will waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and slow down Internet access.

Despite being almost universally condemned by the public, ISPs, State Governments, Media and censorship experts, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is determined to force this filter into your home.

On this site I also found the blog for the anti clean feed, so enjoy!







Freeware

-

Thank you to the smart people in the world who created sites to share software for FREE. I would like to thank them for Photoshop and Adobe packages which have helped me gain As in art classes. In addition to this (whilst not admiting too) peer to peer site are extermely useful and save the average person a load of money.


For my Art and Cultural Work class I had to create a soundtrack from recorded sounds in my surrounding environment. Long story short, I recorded the sounds on my phone and this had compressed the files when I tried to export them into Audacity which is another free software. To solve this problem I enlisted the help of google to find a AMR to MP3 converter. I can't remember the exact site however it is one programe that is made to do one thing and it works wonderfully. It is simple and easy to use, although it is also fast and can convert multiple files at once.




Audacity on the other hand is another free downloadable software that allows the user to compose their own songs or musical interpretation. The program comes from a link to sourceforge. I found it easy to use once I played around for a while, but like all software you have to learn the program to be able to use it correctly and to your advantage.

Lecture Summary

- Tuesday, September 22, 2009

WEEK 7


Week 7 we had Jason as our lecturer and he spoke about free/open source software. He also talked about peer to peer sites which is basically a site where you can download cracked software of just about everything your heart desires. Jason spoke about how open software is a way to improve and tweak software to your own liking.

He also talked about different operating systems... Windows VS Mac and how these operating systems host other freeware. He showed us three site to download from, naughty naughty and they were: portableapps.com, freewaregenius and sourceforge.

Lecture summary

-

Week 6


The week 6 lecture lent itself to the title of consumption and production. After the obvious film/TV production then consumed by the public, the lecture explored the new wave of what I like to call productsumption. The merging and blurring of the lines between consumption and production. Consumers are becoming the producers which reenter the consumer market. Online outlets, for example, Youtube have allowed consumers to edit, reproduce or completely produce their own original products and post them for other consumers to view.

Can you count how many times I said a form of CONSUMPTION or PRODUCTION?
CONSUMPTION - 7
PRODUCTION - 6

Lecture summary

-

Week 4

During the week 4 lecture we looked at the timeline of cinema and how it has evolved over the decades. Some interesting facts included the first feature length film was produced by Australians and was a film about Ned Kelly.
Other facts about smell-o-vision and also 3D movies came about in the 50s were something I didn't know. I had no idea they had been around for that long. Even VCRs or some form of the VCR was also invented in the 50s surprised me. Video recording devices have some such a long way, considering we are in the forth/fifth or sixth generation - blue ray. I didn't even know that CDs or "laser discs" were invented so early in 80s in fact.

Film and all related film medias have come a long, long way since their beginnings to what we enjoy now.


The last part of Interaction...

-


The is one more site I have yet to interact with but the dust storm outside is just tooo amazing and has captured 99.9 percent of my attention. During the quick glances back at the computer screen I have been cruising the generator site and found some funny and weird things to generate.

This is my Rap name:


Hey Sarah Palin!


Sketching

- Wednesday, September 16, 2009

My sketch is a little weird only because I don't actually have a mouse, I had to use the touch pad on my laptop. It is almost impossible to draw vertiually, becuase nothing ever turns out the way you want it to. This is my sketch, its quite colourful so enjoy.

Short films

- Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Youtube is a wonderful way to find films and other recorded material by the public and amateur film makers trying to get their work in the public domain.


Strangers by Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv is a film that contains no dialog. It is amazing to watch how the story evolves through tension and expressions. I am not sure whether or not this film is an internet short film, although it is really good and I though I would put it in. This film is a great short film because it has no speech and contains elements of religion and violence within common public places. The film has touched and amazed many people because it has 1247 posted comments in reply.





Another video I found was directed by Benjamin Reece and posted on September 15, 2008. It is titled "Fifty people, one question" and interviews 50 people on the street and asks them what they would wish to happen by the end of the day. Being a millionaire was very popular, but the simplicity of the film and style of shooting zooming in and out of focus was quite interesting to watch. I enjoyed this film because of the simple nature of the video and style of sounds and also the diversity in the people they interviewed.




The last short film I found is called muscle. It is really short and a little funny. They are trying to start an old pontiac and eventually get it going. They swear a little but I'm not sure if it adds or takes away from the video. The filming is pretty amateur but the online revolution has allowed these sorts of films to gain exposure within the public domain. Some of the people that have commented wanted sequels to find out what happens next.


Interaction.

- Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Some websites are fun, some are interesting, some are boring and others are just weird.

Wikipedia. One word that enjoys day to day interaction from individuals that believe they are the world of knowledge and edit pages according to this delusion.
List of social networking websites hosted by Wikipedia provides a list of all the known social networking site. Its interesting that the first website on the list is Adult Friend Finder focusing on adults only dating/"hook-up" network, although it has an open registration with 33 million users.

Others that are slightly weird... include:
  • Black Planet, 20 million users
  • Elftown, 185000 users, community and wiki around fantasy and sci-fi
  • Faceparty 200,000 users
  • Friendster, 90 million users
  • Skyrock, 22 million users
  • Vampirefreeks almost 2 million users
The most popular and well-known websites have an amazing amount of users:
  • Bebo, 40 million users
  • Facebook, 250 million users
  • Hi 5, 80 million users
  • Myspace, almost 264 million users
  • Twitter, 44.5 million users
  • Windows live spaces, 120 million users

Social network rankings site lists social networking sites in order from the most monthly visits the to the least monthly visits in a top 25 ranking. It is a re count of a previous ranking showing the changes in spots. Facebook, myspace and twitter battle it out in the top three spots with facebook taking over myspace's number one spot. myspace is back down to number two while twitter has jumped from number 22 to take out third position. It's quite interesting to find out what it most popular in the battle of the social networking sites.

Ployvore is a site that lets you shop online from an array of different stores, top brands and from home designers. It takes you through a list of the latest trends and other websites that contribute to plyvore. it also allows you to create and post your own advertisements under your profile using images of fashion objects that you can buy. Other users also post comments about the advertisements giving feedback. Some of the ads are really good while others are kind of lame.

Disaster Maps, powered by google, shows current weather events happening all over the globe. It gives a list of current emergencies, short time events, long time events, tsunami information, earthquake events, storm monitoring and active volcanoes. The site has a map and allows you to zoom in and out to have a look at different weather events in differing states and countries.



My map

- Tuesday, September 1, 2009

This is where I want to go and where I have been

Persona

-


This is my internet persona.

This actual does represent me on the internet because my name is very unique and I could possibly be only person on the planet this this name. The sports section is the largest because my ballroom dance results are posted on the internet from dance competitions. Fashion is there because I love fashion and it is the area I want to write in once I have finished my Journalism course. Education comes up because I received a lot of academic awards during high school and it is most likely to be posted somewhere on my school's site.

Who, What, When, Where, Why, How

- Sunday, August 30, 2009

I watched Inglorious Bastards last night and really enjoyed it. As a Quentin Tarantino flim I expected more violence/gore but I wish there was more. It was quite funny and I could not take Brad Pitt seriously with his super fake Texan accent. My favourite line "I can speak I-talian" - ha.

So getting down to business...

Who:
Shosanna Dreyfus, The Bastards (Lt. Aldo Raine, Sgt. Donny Donowitz "The Jew Bear", Lt. Archie Hicox, Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz, Cpl. Wilhelm Wicki, Pfc. Smithson Utivich "The Little Jew", Pfc. Omar Ulmer) and Col. Hans Landa "The Jew Hunter"

What:
A plot to kill Hitler and the Third Reich at a film premire by The Bastards and cinema owner Shosanna (French-Jew).

When:
1945

Where:
Nazi occupied France

Why:
To end the war and the Allies win - basically kill all the Nazis and their leaders in the one go

How:
The Bastard's/America's plan is to plant bombs within the cinema-a suicide misson to blow up the cinema.
Meanwhile Shosanna who owns the cinema has hatched a plan to burn down the cinema by setting alight the stockpiles of film roles.

Video

- Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Photo edits.

-

ORIGINAL













EDIT












ORIGINAL











EDIT












ORIGINAL








EDIT












ORIGINAL










EDIT
















Week 3 lecture review

-

Week 3:


"Learning the language of the the Cinema"

For week three's lecture we were taught about camera angles (shots) and how they apply to film. The different shots also give the viewer a sense of who, what, where, when, why and how. Next was the subject within a frame allowing for head room, talking space, the rule of thirds and the 180 degree rule.

Week 2 lecture review

-

Week 2:


During the week two lecture we learnt about the history of computing and the internet. We learnt about key people and inventions such as Charles Babbage and the Difference Engine, and Alan Turning who largely contributed to the construction of the computer. The first commercial computer was produce by IBM in the 1950s. We also learnt about Xerox PRAC, MAC and the combination of IBM and Microsoft. Next was the internet and the world wide web. We learnt about its growing uses such as email, instant messaging, file sharing etc.

Week 1 Lecture Review

-

Week One:


"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"

In the first lecture we were taught about new and old media. Old media being land lines, film, written letters, etc, and new media being mobile phones, the internet and its various uses like social networking. We also learnt about what is communication, technology and convergence.

-




Scavenger Hunt.

As of last tutorial I did not get to complete all of the the scavenger hunt questions...
so here is the remaining ones:

2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Lilly Allen?

Quickest would be her official site which also has links to her twitter, myspace, facebook etc.



9. What was the top song on the Aust
ralian pop charts in this week in 1965?



10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on the keyboards and vocals?


- Tuesday, August 18, 2009


Scavenger Hunt!


When the world relies heavily upon google for an abundance of compiled information at a click of a button it is hard to even think about using different search engine. As a google user myself it's hard to even think of another search engine. Even wikipedia is an amazing source of information on the most random things (especially music!).

So in this tutorial we must find answers to random questions without using google or wikipedia.

Question 1

What is the weight of the world's biggest pumpkin? How long did it take to grow?

The world's largest pumpkin weighs 1689 pounds, grown by Joe Jutras. The pumpkin took over four and a half months to grow.
[Source: www.askjeeves.com, www.bing.com]


Question 2
What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Lilly Allen?

Question 3
What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?

A giraffe's tongue is 46 centimeters long.

[Source: www.askjeeves.com]





Question 4
How would you define the word 'glycomics'? In your own words, what does it really mean ? What does the term 'seagull manager' refer to?

Glycomics is derived from the chemical prefix for sweetness or sugar ("glyco-") and formed to establish genomics which deals with genes and proteins. carbohydrates in an organism is referred to as the glycome.
[source: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Glycomics]

Glycomics is the comprehensive study of glycomes (the entire complement of sugars, whether free or present in more complex molecules, of an organism), including genetic, physiologic, pathologic, and other aspects. Glycomics "is the systematic study of all glycan structures of a given cell type or organism" and is a subset of glycobiology.
[Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/glycomics]

In other words the term glycomics is the study of sugar molecules and structures of an organism.

The term seagull manager refers to a type of management style where a manager only interacts with employees to criticize their work or when a problem arrises.
[Source: www.wordspy.com]

Question 5
What was David Cronenberg's first feature film? Which of his films Had 'Blondie' in it?

David Cronenberg's first feature film was Shivers released in 1975.
[Source: http://www.filmreference.com/Directors-Co-Du/Cronenberg-David.html]

The David Cronenberg film in which Debbie Harry (lead singer of Blondie) appears in is Videodrome.

[Source: www.freedatabase.com]

Question 6
When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?

The original Hacker's Manifesto was written on January 8, 1986 by "The Mentor".

[Source: www.bing.com]

Question 7
Why do phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?

Due to the "low fill" of the 555 code, Hollywood was encouraged to quote 555 numbers in their productions to prevent real subscribers being harassed by members of the public trying out the numbers quoted on the screen. Generic and satirical advertisements and commercials often used 555 numbers.

[Source: www.askjeeves.com]

Question 8
What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Sydney?

The cheapest form of travel is to drive... in the average car it costs about $50 in fuel to get from the Gold Coast to Sydney.


Language of the Screen

Labels: - Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Camera Angles:
MS:
A mid shot (animation on right) contains the characters or a character from the waist up. From this shot, viewers can see the characters' faces more clearly as well as their interaction with other characters. This is also known as a social shot.


ECU:
An extreme close-up (animation on right) contains one part of a character's face or other object. This technique is quite common in horror films, particularly the example above. This type of shot creates an intense mood and provides interaction between the audience and the viewer.
Source: Skwirk


WS:

The subject takes up the fullframe or at least as much as possible.
Source: MediaCollege.com

History of computing and the internet

-


1642 - At 19 French inventor Beliase Pascal invented the first mechanical calculator. The calculator was able to add and subtract.


1674 - Gottfried Leibniz of Germany designs a machine able multiply and divide.

1834 - Charles Babbage invented a mechanical computer, called a "difference engine". The difference engine could calculate and print the calculations. However this machine or the later "analytical engine" were not built in his lifetime. The construction of the difference engine was in London in the 1900s.

1835 - Samuel Morse invented the Morse Code

1837 - William Cook and Charles Wheatstone invented the telegraph


1855 - G. Schnetz creates a calculating engine which was displayed in a Paris Exhibition

1876 - Alexander Bell invents the first telephone

1889 - Herman Hollerith invented a tabulating machine.

1896 - Herman Holleritih funds a company (Tabulating Machine Company) which later becomes IBM

1911 - TMC is changed to IBM (International Business Machines)

1926 - The first television is invented by John Logie Baird

1937 - Alan Turing develops the theoretical computing machine concept

1949-50 - Printed electronic circuits are invented

1950 - Big computers

1953 - IBM starts building big computers

1954 - Fortran programming language

1960 - first email programme called mailbox

1964 - IBM first word processor

1965 - first minicomputer

1971 - Microprocessor

1972 - pocket calculator, email between two machines

1975 - portable computer

1984 - Apple Macintosh introduces the mouse and window interface, CD-ROM and cyberspace

1986 - the internet takes shape

early 1900's - Wired networks number over 7,500 worldwide, reaching people in more than 75 countries

1995 - There are 30 to 40 million Internet users in the world (estimated).









Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)