Reflective Blog

Blog vs Tutorial

I like the idea for doing blog tutorial because it is fun and interesting and it is something which I have never done before in any of my units. I do find that classroom tutorials are more interactive though as different ideas got thrown around the classroom faster than online tutorial in which only some people participate in them. Moreover, it is difficult to maintain a constant flow of arguments on a blog tutorial. However, it is really useful for shy students (like me) to participate in tutorials so it does not require one to speak up in class. On the whole, I find it useful to me and an interesting way to hold tutorial classes.

Cyborg

This unit has indeed taught me a lot about cyborg. Before taking this unit, I was not interested in sci-fi stuffs and apparently does not know what a cyborg is. But after this semester, this unit gives me a new insight to cyborg. I realised too that in todays' world, most of us are cyborgs and we are not able to run away from this fact. We need machine and technology to get us through our everyday life and to help us accomplish our task. This unit is also a way of identifying myself in the world of technology.

Unit Evaluation

Overall, I find this unit to be interesting and useful. I enjoyed learning about cyborgs, feminism and the cyberspace.

Blog vs Tutorial

I liked the idea of online tutorials, as i felt it was very appropriate for the unit and what we were studying. It helped show me how much the internet is/or can be used for everyday life, including university studies. However, i felt that discussion was lacking, possibly because not everyone was online at the same time, or because there was no tutor or leader to lead the discussion. However, i found this an interesting way of communicating with my tutorial class.

Cyborg

I think that every one of us, in some ways, is a cyborg. Wether we admit it or not, the majority of us in today's society rely on the internet for so much. From completing tutorials! to paying bills online or booking flights online (which is also the cheapest way of doing it these days), the internet seems to be constantly consuming us.

Unit evaluation

I thoroughly enjoyed this unit, as it was a whole other opening in feminism understanding, and understanding of cyberspace - both two very important things in society. I have done many other women studies units, but none focused on this side of feminism. It was very interesting and very useful to know and understand.

Reflection Blog

Blogs Vs. Tutorials
I found that blogging was far less stimulating than face-to-face discussion, however this may be due to the inconsistency of contribution over the period that we were blogging rather than going to class. As it has already been mentioned our class discussions are usually quite successful, I thought that personally it was a result of lack of structure and authority in the blogs i.e. no tutor meant no discussion.

Cyborg?
I live in a UWA residential college and in just about every single of the 380 rooms there is a laptop or PC that impregnates the space and provides one of the single most important elements in a residents life. This is a rather depressing image but that is the reality of our modern day society and it seems that the cyborg tag is unavoidable. In this respect I think that blogging instead of tutorials is possibly a more negative thing as it encourages more time in front of the computer than interacting with others face-to-face.

Reflective Post

Blogging
I think that in general transferring the tutorials to blogs was a very good idea since it tied in very well with the rest of the unit.I personally am quite familiar with this form of online communication, but I guess there were others who weren't and this was quite a good possibility of 'experimenting' with it a bit.
Unfortunately, our blog didn't really go very well. Not a lot of discussions were created and in general there were a lot more people in our face-to-face tutes that were up for discussions (which were always really good). So I don't know why that happened.

Am I a cyborg?
The clearest answer to this I guess is 'yes'. I mean, we all use so many technical enhancements that I doubt there is anyone in this class who isn't a cyborg in that way. I have to say though that I still have a bit of a problem with 'accepting' that idea. I mean, technically, when I use a pen to write something down that makes me a cyborg. This is the part I cannot really relate to because then everything that goes beyond our natural state of 'being naked and living in caves' makes us a cyborg. However, I think that the cyborg-question is definitely one that's relevant asking, especially in this day and age. To me, the idea is very abstract though. I probably am a cyborg. I just wonder whether I can find a person on this earth who isn't then. And I am also undecided whether that's a good or a bad thing.

Evaluation of the Unit in general
I enjoyed the unit because it gave me insights into the world of cyberspace and ideas about it that I never came across before or never really thought about before. In that sense it triggered a bit of a re-thinking. In general, however, I also feel that some of the things we discussed were a bit redundant, in the sense that I still feel that most of the (power) structures (politics, race, gender, etc.) that we have in real live are simply mirrored online. It is not like the internet 'invented' all these things. It was interesting to read and discuss in which way cyberspace overcomes or reinforces those power structures though. I really enjoyed that!

Week 12 Reflective Post

Weblogs
I really enjoyed writing on the blog and thought it was a great to do something so different to all my other units. Some weeks I was craving more discussion on the blog, as I didn’t really feel like our tut did it justice – which surprised me since I thought we had some good discussions in the face to face tuts, and also some tech savvy personal bloggers in out tut group. I wondered if, in addition to a blog/instead of, we could have a sort of chat room where we’d chat online in real time, say in the tut time; maybe that would have generated more discussion.

Cyborgs
I had never considered myself a cyborg before this course, but after learning the concept, and writing my webliography, I have decided that we are all cyborgs. It is amazing how technology is everywhere, yet almost invisible at the same time, melting into our everyday life. You only have to go a few days [or maybe hours!] without a laptop or a mobile phone to see how they sort of become a part of you[!], not to mention all the bodily enhancements that seem so normal to us.

The unit in general
I really enjoyed this unit, I’m a women’s studies major and this is my last ever women’s studies and also Arts unit, so I’m glad it was a fun one. All the topics were pretty interesting, but things I liked best were reading the excepts of the Cyberpunk novels, and thinking about how some things that were once science fiction inform science and technological developments and become a part of our daily lives! I liked the culture-jamming topic as well, and thought that all the workshops were great.

Alice’s Presentation – Smart mobs: the power of the mobile many, Howard Rheingold

Hi everyone,
I'm presenting in class on Friday, so don't forget to come along for out last FTF tut and hopefully some great discussion. Here's what we'll be discussing so you can all come prepared :)

Smart mobs are groups of people who are able to communicate and act quickly using wireless communicative and broadcasting technologies.

“Location-sensing wireless organisers, wireless networks and community supercomputing collectives all have one thing in common: they enable people to act together in new ways and in situations where collective action was not possible before.” (p191)

An example of this phenomenon was Manila residents political demonstration which caused the fall of the Philippines government in 2001 – 20,000 people assembled in 75 minutes through waves of text messaging: ‘Go 2EDSA, Wear blck.’

Activism on this scale relies on many small units of people organising around a shared goal, and using mobile communications to quickly come together from different directions (pp193-194)

Protesters in Seattle against the WTO used “radios, police scanners and portable computers. Protesters in the street with wireless Palm Pilots were able to link into continuously updated web pages giving reports from the streets. Police scanners monitored transmissions and provided some warning of changing police tactics. Cell phones were widely used.” (p193)

Action taken in Seattle and Manila and other places have been termed ‘netwars,’ a mode of action used by both social activists and criminal/terrorist organisations. So there are positive and negative uses of smart mob tactics and technologies.

There is a potential for ‘peer-to-peer journalism’ from phones and other devices used at protests where film footage can instantly be uploaded to the web. (p196)

Smart mob tactics can prompt many people to act and cause ‘massive outbreaks of coorperation,’ which can definitely have positive outcomes, but can also be unpleasant: ‘Lynch mobs and entire nations cooperate to perpetuate atrocities.’ (p197)

Questions for discussion:

What are the implications of ‘peer-to-peer’ journalism that is possible because of mobile technologies? Might this change how traditional forms of media report? Or how we get our information?

How might these technologies be used in positive ways to keep/make governments/corporations accountable to citizens?

How might society change through these mobile technologies?

Are we more connected than ever before? Less connected? Differently connected?

Would receiving a text message like ‘Go 2 Frst Ch, Wear blk’ mobilise you for action?

Social Networks = increased workload

I found Danah Boyd’s article really interesting to read. She talks about the increasing use of social network sites and in particular does ethnographic studies on users of myspace. On page 3 of the article, she specifically distinguishes between the classes of teenagers who refrain from using myspace. She includes teens whose parents have successfully banned them from using the internet and teens who deliberately want to object to the use of social networks. It made me wonder whether there are a large number of teens who do not use social networks purely because of the additional social maintenance that they require you to participate in. This was a major reason why I refused ( until recently) to join the popular facebook network. While I have and enjoy my social group of friends, initially I found the idea of continuously receiving messages, photo updates etc to be almost like a form of social pressure, where I felt pressured into doing the same. Often I find that I am accused of being rude on facebook as I often fail to respond to messages or posts. I feel that being a part of these social networks requires high maintenance. While most teenagers seem more than happy to engage in this type of social maintenance, Boyd does not consider whether the teens who do not join the networks refuse to do so because of the pressures and demands they place on individuals to keep up to date with social events, people and places. I am not sure if such a reason exists for younger teens. Perhaps its something only older users experience. For me, my experience on facebook could be equated to a high powered CEO who is never able to turn their blackberry phone off. It is an avenue for increasing one’s accessibility to other people and to be this is something I often like to avoid! More me time!

Another interesting point in this article, is Doyd’s point of self identity on social network sites. She mentions that most of these sites are based on profiles. It is essentially the profile which allows you to develop and present your personality to the world. New age philosophy always conveys a message of detachment. It encourages people to detach from the world and often suggests that spending time alone with yourself is the only way to relax, meditate and understand yourself better. I wonder, in a world which is as fast paced as ours, how does the social networks affect our ability to understand ourselves? Do we create profiles to make ourselves look good to others? Are our profiles accurate reflections of who we really are?
Thats all from me!

PRESENTATION - Online Communities - Myspace and Teenagers

The article that I am focusing on is the third article of the week by Danah Boyd, called "Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life."

"If you're not on Myspace, you don't exist." This is the opening quote to Danah Boyd's article about online communities, and the role they play in the lives of teenagers. Being a teenager myself in today's society, I somewhat agree with this quote. However being the (mature) person that I am now, I have advanced from my teen days of Myspace and now spend my days checking up on my Facebook profile. However, no matter which online community one belongs to, it is no doubt that these sites play a huge part in the majority of people's lives.

I found that Danah Boyd's article focused more on the logistics of Myspace rather than the issues surrounding it. So I ask the question, why do we join these sites? Why do we post photos, comments and information about ourselves that anyone around the world can see? Is it to do with inclusion, or to do with expressionism?

In Boyd's article, she claims that an online profile can be seen as a form of 'digital body', where individuals can write themselves into being. People can post altered photos, give false information and say anything about themselves they want. This differs to the offline society. In the offline society people are less inclined to find out information about others. No one would come up to you and ask for your date of birth, relationship status or to look at photos of you. However, online one can look at anyones profile, and find out who they are online, rather than offline, a whole lot easier.

I find that on online communities, it is also alot easier to showcase more information of yourself. As the article focuses on teenagers, it says that most of them join Myspace because everyone is on it and to be 'cool'. In the offline reality, one doesn't showcase openly to the public what famous people they are friends with, or what they have done during the day or holidays. However on Myspace and other online communities, you can tell the world just about anything about yourself.

With these points from the article in mind, what has become more of a reality for society? Online or offline? Has online interactions become the new reality? Are you more 'real' now online than offline? And do people have two separate identities, online and offline?

Pranking Rhetoric: “Culture Jamming” as Media Activism

OMG. First off, so sorry. I thought I had posted this last week, but apparently... >__>
My bad.

Checked in today and was rather 0__o!!

Sorry for the delay!


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Pranking Rhetoric: “Culture Jamming” as Media Activism


The article discusses the phenomenon of Culture Jamming, in which pranksters use the tools of mass media to subvert the messages of authority, in this case, usually powerful corporations. It is interesting precisely because it takes advantage of the very same tools and methods that these powers use and turn it against them in a way that does not directly resist the original message, but rather turns it inside out and expose its flaws.

Christine starts by examining the Adbusters 2003 campaign called Blackspot, in which they attempt to sell a black canvas shoe with a white spot where a logo would traditionally be. This and other Adbusters projects attempt to subvert the methods of advertising and use it against the corporations, but after awhile, even this gets tiring. Adbusters fiercely direct opposition to certain brands feels like a rehashing of the very same “do this, do that” rhetoric of the big brands themselves - being “told what is best for them is no more welcome coming from Adbusters than it is coming from advertisers”.

Instead she advocates a more playful approach, represented by Joey Skaggs, ®™ark , the Biotic Baking Brigade, and the American Legacy Foundation's INFKT Truth Campaign.

Why this playful approach might work, whereas a directly oppositional one may not, is that the latter functions by a “rhetoric of negation” - that merely by a constant process of saying “No”, no new framework is established, and more limits and boundaries must then be overcome.

Perhaps, rather than being told what is right or wrong, people might prefer to be given control and a sense of power over the message.

A quick summary of what the various groups/individuals accomplished.

Joey Skaggs
- Opened a false dog brothel for dogs, and posted advertisements up. Whilst it may sound silly, it drew uproar, with Skaggs quickly earning ABC News interviews and eventually even criminal charges. The charges were dropped when he revealed it as a hoax.

®™ark
-Switched voice-chips within Barbie toys and G.I. Joe action figures and then returned them to stores, leading to G.I. Joe proclaiming “Let's plan our dream wedding!” and Barbie exclaiming “Vengeance is mine!” on Christmas day when said toys were opened by unsuspecting families. Ensue resulting hoo-haa and discomfort/enlightenment over toys promoting gender-based sterotyping.

Biotic Baking Brigade
-Ambushes celebrities and powerful leaders (like Bill Gates) and hurls a pie in their face, often at a very serious and public speech-giving session. Plays with the image of power, and the media's obsession with images and scandal.

American Legacy Foundation's INFKT Truth Campaign.
-This one was interesting because it was a public service campaign. It was, however, catchy and slick, using modern graphic design and rather than telling kids not to smoke directly and using fear tactics, had 2-page spreads in magazines in orange and white screaming messages like “CIGARETTE SMOKE HAS ARSENIC”, and “AMMONIA IS ADDED TO CIGARETTES”. The genius of the plan was this bit though – to urge the readers to “Spread the knowledge. Infect truth.”

It also had pictures of these adverts opened strategically at a magazine store opened to said pages.

Another of their campaigns gave free stickers in the shape of blank conversation bubbles, with a picturenext to the stickers showing a Marlboro advert with a sticker attached to it, giving kids a convenient way to hijack existing adverts.

Conclusion
It is suggested that these methods work better than directly oppositional and ascetic methods. Instead of saying “No”, how might we subvert the very tools of power (the media) to gain emancipation and ownership?

In this way, instead of being slaves to media, we make media our tool as well, and by riding upon the wave created by corporations/people in power, we harness that power for ourselves.

Powerthirst

I just wanted to share a link to an add spoof thing for sports drinks. Some of you may have seen it before just from general browsing or because it was featured on The Gruen Transfer. Although there is not a specific focus on gender, the idea that sports drink substances have the ability to 'enhance' the sporting performance of the drinker is often directed at men. The Powerthirst add uses the term 'menergy' as you will see and parodies those elements of sports drink adds that we see so often.

I think it's brilliant!

Pranking and Culture Jamming

I thought the topic for this week was really interesting - I especially thought the Barbie Liberation Organization Organization was awesome - of course I had noticed that kid's toys are very gendered, but what the two talking toys say really reinforces certain cultural values - Barbie: 'i love shopping,' 'can we ever have enough clothes' is a pretty blatant advert for capitalist consumption and the G.I. Joes promote and glorify war even more through their speech. I think hearing the words coming from the wrong mouth [ie. hearing a Barbie promote violence and war] could also have the effect of highlighting this. I found this clip about the BLO - if anyone else finds other news items, or any interviews with parents from that time, they'd be great to see. Listen to what the kids say about the G.I. Joe.

Another site about pranking and culture jamming was also interesting to explore.

And given that we haven't had much [haha, ok, any] discussion this week I thought I'd put the link for adbusters here too - it is definitely worth a look.

Next Level Article: Some additional comments

I spent the weekend interviewing a few of my well known gaming friends. My discussions gave me a good insight into the representation of women in a range of games which I will share with you. I myself do not play any games ( apart from solitaire!) and was really shocked and disgusted by some of the things that are in current day games. Below is a brief summary of some of the games and the representations of women in them.

WOW ( world of warcraft)

• Female characters are barely covered with armour so as to accentuate the female body for male gamers
• Male characters in contrast are given full body armour

Age of Conan

• Includes topless female 3D characters and promotes female nudity

Grand Theft Auto

• This game passed the classification boards at first instance despite the fact that there is an actual intercourse section of the game.
• The game allows characters to pick up hookers, attend strip clubs and register and brothels

From my understanding, the gaming industry does not seem to be progressing in terms of representing women in a non sexual, objectified manner. It amazes me how there are strict policies enforced in the workplace about computer savers or desktops having females in swimsuits however no stringent laws apply to the production of games. There seems to be a real blurring of reality and fantasy within actual games despite the fact that most games imitate reality. In essence, the games seem to reflect a modern day reality without any law and order, where brothels and hookers are available and where women are always exploited. I don't mean to sound like a nagging protester but some of these games are truly terrible!

ethics of porn on the net.... SERENA

Hi All,
Reading about sex and pornography is not something i really expected to do at uni but i found this article intriguing. In fact i'm sure we all enjoyed reading this article (?) The reason i say that is because in a classroom setting (and in many social circles) the topic of porn is tabu!! Am i right? And i believe that we certainly (as humans) have the desire to be risky and understand something we may otherwise know nothing about.
This article outlines the demographic of who, where, how, and why internet porn is being accessed and who is making it.
WHO: the general consenses is that porn is made for the middle aged heterosexual male who holds fantasies of sexually active and available women. However, during research for this article it is found that porn on the net can be somewhat liberating for those who have varied tastes in sexual preferences. During the 70s and 80s porn was found in magazines and on video and generally contained images of a limited female body type. Now that porn is on the net and is 70% of it is amateur porn it seems to 'cater' for a wider audience. Now, those who share particular 'fetishes' can share them and find like-minded folk.
A large part of this article talks about the fact that people can now make their own porn and experience exhibitionist attributes at first hand. "The internet has allowed a remarkable blurring of the categories of 'publisher', 'distributer', 'performer' and 'consumer'". The article explores the desire to voluntarily immerse oneself in 'interactive pornography' and states that with this avenue women especially are increasingly more comfortable to perform sexual acts that they had previously only ever fantasied about... ie: group sex, lesbian sex, oral etc.
WHERE: The question of porn invading the home through the internet is raised. In the past access to porn was available through magazines and video's bought from adult shops but now that many households have internet access porn becomes part of the private sphere. This has its up sides and its downsides. Firstly, of course there is more comfort in the private sphere... who would not rather using the simple click of a mouse to access porn rather than entering an adult shop and all its stigma attached? Unfortunately though, feminists argue that porn 'is a perverse outsider forcing its way into suburban homes'.
I close with this quote from the article: " Undoubtedly, the internet facilitates anonymous sexual experimentation. Whether it is seen as a positive or a negative factor will depend on your point of view".

Please feel welcome to start up some conversations about this article and your thoughts on it as i will be regularly checking the blog this week.
Thanks.

Tutorial Presentation: The Good, the Bad, and the Virtual

The ethical issues surrounding mediums like print and television media have been complicated with the onset of the internet. This new form of media has radically changed the presentation of information and therefore has brought a new set of ethical dilemmas. Ethics are standards of behaviour that are ‘right’. In The Good, the Bad and the Virtual, Mark Poster highlights many of the concerns critics shares over the internet; “the new medium will undermine the ethical basis of society”. Poster notes how internet sites are “easy to construct and cheap to maintain”, enabling people to display sites that have ‘disturbing material’. In this ‘age of information’, it raises a number of questions over the ethical systems online and more importantly, do they exist?.

The ethical and moral elements of journalism have been altered online. The internet is a very different medium compared to print media. Print and Television media are usually limited geographically as they are mainly distributed locally (i.e. city, state, country). Certain codes of ethics must be complied to ensure journalists attain and present information in a fair and unbiased way. Although this does not always happen, journalists are held accountable via these forms of media. The internet, on the other hand, is widely accessible. There is also anonymity on the internet as anyone can write news items. Similar ethical issues arise with the presentation of information. Mark Poster referred to a semi-code of ethics which exists on the internet, known as ‘netiquette’. However, he further stated that “the practice of coaching newbies in the ways of netiquette could not keep up”. To see some of the rules, you may want to view this webiste on netiquette. This system of ethics is difficult to maintain on such a large scale and is almost impossible to police. Consequently, there is broad spectrum of views and information presented on the internet, often biased. The anonymity has generated a greater sense of freedom to say what you want, no matter how offensive. Pornography is also more widely accessible on the net. Do you think that the ethical elements behind pornography have changed online? If so, how?

An ethical issue raised online is the distortion of identities. Poster identified a case involving FBI agents who posed as underage girls in chat rooms to catch potential sex-offenders. However, when they caught the perpetrator, he was released based on the argument “that his actions ‘were grounded in an online fantasy world’ and were not reprehensible morally and legally” (Miller 1999). This clearly illustrates how the ethical dimensions radically change online with the separation of worlds into ‘virtual’ and ‘real’. Poster further stated how the justice system “accepted the distinction between real and virtual pedophilia”. Do you think there should be a world wide system of ethics that applies to everyone?

Because characteristics of the internet differ from the traditional forms of media, ethical systems have been thought to be medium-specific. A number of complexities arise from using the internet as the boundaries between the public and private sphere are blurred. Mark Poster notes in his article, that what was previously confined to the private sphere has overflowed into the public via the net. An example of this was a sex change operation which was video recorded and posted on a webcam. This raised a number of ethical issues, including questions regarding censorship on the net. Do you think it was ethical to allow for this operation to be broadcast on the World Wide Web? Do you think ethical systems should be medium-specific?

Thus, the expansion of the internet has given rise to many ethical dilemmas in cyberspace. Do you think ethical systems exist online?

Hi everyone!

Great post on the ICERED convention. I think the law really struggles to deal with racism under the Racial Discrimination Act, which only covers racism ( overt) in the workplace. I liked your summary of the problem the law encounters with defining boundaries. I remember studying a case in law, where an employee had received offensive emails which he found to be racist. He was unsuccessful in arguing workplace racism under the racial discrimination act because the law did not recognise cyberspace as a space for racism.

This week, I have been attending interviews for full time work next year. I came across an interesting article on Patriarchy and capitalism by Anne Witz. I will post the citation ASAP. She suggests that both concepts of patriarchy and capitalism are connected and that the introduction of technology in the workplace has further marginalised women and has resulted in creating gender segregation in the workplace. Thoughts anyone?

Also- This morning (11/9/08) I missed a snip on sunrise on a woman ( top CEO) who blamed female employees for increasing the gap between male and female pay in the workplace. Did anyone catch this?

Enjoy the weekend,

Rohini :)

(Week 7)Presentation--Hong Kong Cyberculture: A case study

The article can also be found online from the website: http://www.hku.hk/hkcsp/ccex/ehkcss01/issue3_ar_amy_lai.htm

The article gave the basic sense of conflict between freedom and privacy in cyberspace from the introduction, but Lai’s was not going to argue about the freedom vs. privacy, instead, she was using the online forum, “ICERED”, as the example to explore Hong Kong cyberculture and drew onto discussion about “cyberdemocracy”.

(Also, there are some details about the “E-Silkroad Holdings” and how the privacy of Iceredders became explored legally in this website below, particular in the section of “Legal News From Around the World”:
http://www.hk-lawyer.com/2001-7/July01-news.htm#Legal News )

Lai’s first argument was about the domination in cyberspace, and she suggested that there was a boundary between people who had college education and who had not for the access on the internet. In the case of “ICERED”, at the beginning, it was obviously dominated by those top universities in the U.S., like Oxford University. There was also a rating for all posted articles, according to the English level based on the degrees of, such as, grammatical and expressional concerns, and comment, like “Your English sucks” was very common. This was seen as a discrimination issue, and as the disaffection from people associated with other universities, like Hong Kong University, increased, the website opened wider for more scholars.
I suppose the domination in cyberspace was not good, as it had marginal on people from other groups which might probably be the majority as well. I am glad to know it became more openedly for more people, so that more different comments could be shared.

Also, Lai pointed out that the Internet was a “racialized” space, emphasized the existence of “whiteness”. Whenever there was a topic related to racial identity, the Iceredders would use the ideal physical feature of the particular race, like skin color, to classify other racial groups as well as their own, in both assailing and defending situations. As the connection between racial identity and the physical body was so strong, and even the Iceredders were all invisible, race did not disappear online.
This is so true, and it gave me some more ideas about the relationship between our bodies and online.

Then, Lai led to the cyber related sexuality and gender concerns. She believed that within this dis-embodied space, the gender identity was being re-embodied with greater homogeneity rather than a new form of identity. Therefore, men and women both were stereotyped, for example, the idea of men being as the “sex-hunters" and they paid and used women for sex. She also mentioned about the dating relationship from the online chatting. The issues of sexual harassment and abuse were also considered. Moreover, the gay and lesbian was a controversial topic, for moral concern was involved, though the internet gave a way for people to discuss about it. However, many differences existed between the West and most Asia countries, so the national (or more accurately, the regional) boundaries for the culture were quite clear. Also, Lyotard suggested that the technologies could reinforce traditional hierarchical structures and sometimes it could even subvert it.
I really agree with Lai's argument on the cyber related sexuality and gender issues. Especially for the topic of gay and lesbian, personally I don't have a problem with it, even though I am not one. But as an Asian, I understand why it is controvisal, as it againsts the traditional cultural structure in most Asian countries, i.e., the patrilineage system. It then becomes sensitive and many people in Asia think that the internet can actually "advertise" it to teenagers, I do think this is a problem. When I was younger I knew less and I used to feel lost and unsure about things arounded me. However, again, the internet is part of the media and so ethic and morality issues included in it will be on-going subjects to discuss.

Lai, then, talked about Multi-user Object Oriented (MOO) identity, which related to people’s lives online and spending less time in their “real” life with families and friends. Many people were trying to hold on to their online identities and refused to believe what they did not want to see offline. In some extreme case, it caused to the loss of contact with the real world.
This is a real problem in Hong Kong, and couple years before there was actually a teenage boy killed himself because of the loss of weapons from an online computer game. By this case, we can see how "addicted" online can affect people and make them become confused in the virtual cyberspace. However, I think getting online is certainly having some benefits on our lives, for instant, it is convinent for passing and receiving information, it is just that we have to be careful when getting information from it.

In the conclusion, Lai did a comparison on the “ICERED” from Singapore section to Hong Kong.

General Sharing--Weird Dreams

I had been dreaming of cyborgs these few nights, and one of them really scared me as the cyborg in my dream was called Yanbi--the same name of my younger sister!! So the first thing I did after I woke up was saying to myself that "Yanbi, my sister, is not a cyborg!"Personally I am so frightened to see myself as a cyborg, and so do people who are important in my life. I would try as best as I can just to prove that I am not a cyborg, and I really think that there are many differences from a "cyborg" to a human.

Also, technology is processed by human and machines are created by peopleI remember my classmate in college used to ask the question: Does computer cleverer than our brains? And many of us answered "Yes!" immediately as we had the concern of the capacities that computer can achieve to our daily lives. However, the person who used to ask the question kept saying "No! That's wrong. Who invented computer then?" Yeah, I agreed with him finally, it has got to be someone to invent it, so that should be true.Indeed, I would say my life and experience in it are always affected by technology either in good or bad ways, or in both. But something that inside me are still uniquely existing, like emotion and feeling. I believe that they can never be taken place by technology.Techology has also got its limitation, and so there are still nothing can be the alternative of some important organs and blood in human body.

Back to my dreams, I guess the reason why I am so frightened is that cyborg can mean to me as a less human being in the world, and it can really mix up my sense of identity as being a human.

workshop 4 comments - Serena

hi,
after methodically clicking through all the sites and observing default browsers, gendered identity avenues, race and the like i just feel kind of amped up to say something that may not be very academic, wise or, correct but somehow i have suddenly developed an opinion on this topic and here it is...
are we not either male or female? what is the issue with stating which one you are online? i mean... we're online.. if we were face to face it would be blatantly obvious which sex the person opposite you was so why not make it blatantly obvious online where we do not have eyes to see and instead fingertips to gather information..... i don't know, i just feel a little frustrated that everything gets such analysis! is anyone with me here? i mean i totally understand that this is what the unit is about about and i appreciate that but something makes me uneasy at the same time.

Presentation - Ruminations on Cyber-Race

Jerry Kang's article Ruminations On Cyber-Race is largely anecdotal, with Kang drawing much on his own experiences as a Korean-American law professor. His interest lies mostly in the construction of race on-line and the manner in which this may disrupt racial mechanisms, as he states “race is a social construction…I began wondering what happens when race is constructed through code, in cyberspace” (p. 58) Following the introduction to his article Kang then proceeds to establish some of the ways in which ethnicity may work in the cyber medium, these fall under the main categories of abolition (removal or invisibility of ethnicity on-line), integration (considering ways in which ethnicity may be celebrated or facilitated peaceably on-line) and transmutation (the act of performing a different racial identity on-line).

Kang acknowledges the high probability that there will be a reduced number of minority groups with access to the on-line world as compared to the "white" population, a point which is also raised in the Menu-Driven Identities article by Lisa Nakamura. However despite this somewhat major drawback Kang sees cyberspace as an unmediated space through which we would be able to "engage in more direct experiences with other races - experiences with actual people, not mediated by third parties" (p. 61) He thus sees it as a space where the media and other external sources have not been able to filter information, whereby they place stereotypes and generalisations (often inadvertently) on ethnic groups for their readership. He also considers 'shared goals' to be a way around racial segregation on-line. Forums that facilitate discussion about a particular topic such as sexuality, illness or favorite animals removes the focus from one's ethnic identity and places it on a common feature that each person within the forum shares with the others.

He sums up his short article by assessing the value of those processes of abolition, integration and transmutation. He suggests that integration is something that must worked and built on in social spaces (such as web page designers and on-line gaming technicians) which will facilitate interaction in cyberspace between members of different ethnic groups. He also believes that understanding and utilising the positive aspects of cyberspace will help to avoid future disappointment at missed chances for integration.

I have some questions which I hope you may answer...
Q. It would seem that race, or as I prefer and what I think is more politically correct, ethnicity is so integral to an individual's identity that any attempt to 'erase' or remove it from their online self is far more damaging than it is liberating - what do you think?

Q. While Kang suggests that cyberspace lifts geographical boundaries, with the possibility of opening communication pathways between different ethnic groups; do you think that this may or does now have the opposite effect and instead allows for racism to have a larger audience where people with similar prejudices may group together and fuel their ideas in larger think tanks?

Q. Kang discusses the idea of "transmutation" whereby your on-line self (usually one represented by a digital avatar in an on-line gaming world) chooses to be of a different ethnicity to that of their "real world" self. While he suggests the pros and cons of this idea I was wondering what others thought? Is this an inherently racist act - masquerading under false pretences or like Kang points out, does it make a user question the actual constrictions that their ethnicity places on their real world identity (p. 62)?

Q. And finally, do you think that having to restrict inter-racial interactions to cyberspace is a very sad state of affairs? Or is that what we have brought ourselves to given our racial prejudices and stereotypes that we have gleaned from the media?

Re: Week 7 Discussion

I realize that this comes a bit late seeing as it's already Monday, and I really can't tell for certain if this has been discussed, but I thought I'll just put it out there since one of the questions in the Unit Outline for this week apparently piqued my curiosity.

Anyway, are online interactions inherently gendered? Do gender relations operate differently online compared with face to face interactions?

What does everyone think?

Personally, I feel that online interactions are gendered mostly through personal choice. Sure, there are ways to distinguish the gender behind someone blogging/talking/chatting online but to claim that it is the inherent ability of each individual to conform to gender norms online is, perhaps, an over-generalization. What I mean is, if a person so decided to, it is relatively simple to disguise his/her gender in cyberspace. In fact, I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of people out there that pretends to be of the opposite gender (no judgement here, just stating a point). I believe that to a certain extent, yes, online interactions can be inherently gendered. But more importantly, the level and amount of freedom and manipulation on cyberspace means that such inherent norms are easily rendered void.

As far as whether gender relations operate differently online when compared to face to face interactions, I'm inclined to agree with the statement. Come to think of it, how many of you remember when you said something to someone from the opposite sex online, that you would never have done face to face? I know I have. But of course, that is a simplistic view of things. Still, gender relations has definately undergone a transformation in cyberspace. Be it the empowerment of women or the reinforcement of patriarch values, I think the relative anonymity and freedom of cyberspace has certainly affected gender relationships.

So yep, just my two cents worth. I appologize if I ramble on and on at times..

On a complete side note, I actually know someone that broke up with his girlfriend via the internet. I just thought it was a perfect summation of how gender relations worked differently online. Well, because apparently, he mentioned that online, he could tell her the real reasons why he was leaving her, and it was something he couldn't do if she was standing in front of him. (Disclaimer: I do not agree with his actions.)

Again, I hope I didn't bore anyone too much. Hope to see some discussion going on in here!

Cheers!