Communications Data

This week’s blog will examine the problem the government face with communications data. To do this I will be looking into the problem faced by the government and asking the question whether the government should have the right to access information about its citizen’s communications.

http://security.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa/communications-data/

Communications data is material, for example subscriber and billing records obtained from service providers such as telephone and Internet companies. As this type of information doesn’t contain any of the content involved in the material it can be used as evidence in trials.
The government is looking into ways keeping up with the changing communications environment. The existing capability of the police, the security and intelligence agencies and other public authorities is declining, and therefore they see change as necessary.
The home office published a consultation called ‘Protecting the public in a changing communications environment’. It looked at the importance of communications data in helping to protect and safeguard the public.

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-2009-communication-data/

Here is a link to the response to the consultation paper

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-2009-communication-data/cons-2009-comms-data-responses2835.pdf?view=Binary

Article 8 of the human rights act says that everyone has the right for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. This raises the argument that the government should not be able to the right to access communications data as it calls into question the human rights act.
However I feel that the government should have access to its citizen’s communications data if people’s lives are put in danger due to acts of terrorism. If you are planning to cause harm or endanger lives then your qualified rights of article 8 should be inferior to those rights of others. I also feel that although the government aren’t allowed to use the content of communications in extreme circumstances they should be if it helps prevent terrorism or other serious crimes.

Copyright

The topic of this week’s lecture was Intellectual Property, Creative Commons & DRM. This involved looking into areas such as copyright and piracy.
There are several different forms of piracy; these include things such as illegally downloading movies and music. There are also counterfeit goods such as clothing and money. These types of piracy are costing large companies millions of pounds. Therefore in this blog I will look into answering the question, what effect is piracy having on copyright?
According to research by the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property, at least 7 million people in Britain use illegal downloads. This is costing the economy billions of pounds and thousands of jobs. The research by the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property also revealed that shared content on one network was worth about £12bn a year.
More recently Australian band Men at Work are facing a big legal bill after a court ruled it had plagiarised a Girl Guides' song in its 1983 hit, Down Under. Larrikin Music had claimed the flute riff was stolen from Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree. A costs hearing will take place in late February, with Larrikin seeking 40%-60% of earnings from songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert and record companies Sony BMG Music Entertainment and EMI Songs Australia.
Here is a link to The Intellectual Property Office website which gives information about copyright laws
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/copy.htm
This also helps give an answer to the question asked in this blog because it shows how copyright laws have been broken.

Privacy and Surveillance

This week’s lecture looked into Privacy and Surveillance and how people’s privacy can be invaded by websites who survey what they looking at.
Therefore in this blog I will look into answer to the question, Are clubcards and privilege schemes forms of surveillance?
David Lyon, Surveillance Studies an overview suggests that everybody is involved in surveillance somehow “We are all in a sense implicated in surveillance, both as watchers and the watched.”
One company that uses a clubcard scheme is Tesco’s. This clubcard scheme encourages people to spend money in the store and receive rewards. Tesco’s gain from this because they can see what the individual customer is spending money on. They can then send offers and other promotions to their customers. This is a form of surveillance and it can be very popular with the customers because it looks like the companies value their customers.



This is similar to the ways in which Amazon survey their customers. For example when you purchase something off of this website Amazon recommends other things that you may be interested in because if what you bought.
Is this type of Surveillance fair?
On the one hand it is fair that companies such as Amazon and Tesco’s look at items we’ve bought and recommend and give us offers on things that we might be interested. On the other hand it might not be fair because what gives them the right to survey our lives. It is similar to facebook; this is because a picture of you may be put onto facebook. This picture maybe seen as embarrassing and one that you don’t want people to see. This could lead to you un-tagging yourself in the picture. However just because your name isn’t in the picture people will still recognise you. In my opinion the type of surveillance used by companies is fair because we can benefit from the information that they send us.

This is a link with information on Tesco Clubcards
http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/clubcard/

Game Studies

This week’s lecture looked at Game Studies. The lecture studied the ways in which video games appeal to people. One aspect of video games that appeals to people is interactivity. The cybernetic system is the dynamic system of input/output (the gameplay mechanics) looks into why we enjoy playing games. It is helpful to classify the cybernetic system of a game as existing upon a spectrum which has two poles: balanced and unbalanced. In this blog in will look into answering the question, Why has there been an increase in popularity of balanced video games?
The perfectly balanced cybernetic system would have a 1:1 ratio. This means that one kick from the user equals one kick from the avatar; one throw from the user is one throw from the avatar, and so on. Currently the Wii is closest games console to a having balanced system. There are several advantages to having a balanced system as it can lead to more realistic game play the game can be easier to understand for the user. Another advantage is that balanced video games often have a novelty control interface; the Wii remote and Nun-Chuk for example. In contrast unbalanced video games can lead to the user feeling frustrated and less involved in the game because the avatar isn’t following the gamers movements.





So why are balanced games so popular?

Since the Nintendo Wii launched, the monthly sales numbers of the console have been higher than its competitors across the globe. According to the NPD Group, the Wii sold more units in the United States than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 combined in the first half of 2007.This lead is even larger in the Japanese market, where it currently leads in total sales, having outsold both consoles by factors of 2:1 to 6:1 nearly every week from launch until November 2007. I believe the main reasons for the Wii having higher sales than other consoles are due to its high interactivity. The Wii is a very balanced console and it is great fun with friends and family. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for balanced video games.

Digital Literature: Is the physical version of the book going to die out?

This week’s lecture looked into Digital Literature. The lecture studied the ways in which literature and technology have developed together. The topic of Books Vs Computers was introduced so in this blog I will explore an answer to the question, Is the physical version of the book going to die out?



Annie Proulx: Books on Top: NYT 2004 says that “Nobody is going to sit down and read a novel on a twitchy little screen. Ever.” However this view in more recent times doesn’t seem to be that accurate. For example the emergence of the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader has been well received by the general public. In fact on Christmas Day Amazon.com sold more e-books than physical books. The e-books are easy to get hold of as well. You simply go onto e-book website and download e-books onto the reader. This is much quicker and easier than going into a shop or ordering a book online and waiting for it to be delivered. As Jay David Botler, Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext and the Remediation of Print says, “Electronic literary forms constitute perhaps the most important and visible avant-garde in our contemporary, and otherwise conservative, literary culture.”
This is a link to Amazon.com. This link has product information and a video on the Amazon Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015T963C/?tag=gocous0&hvadid=4139285297&ref=pd_sl_7p2cs87ah_b



So what future does the physical book have?
Although there has been a large increase in the number of people using e-books I believe that there will always be a place for the physical versions of books. The main reason I believe that physical versions of books will never die out is because they have been around for generations, and some people simply prefer them.

Cool sites, can you live by cool sites alone?

Cool sites, can you live by cool sites alone?
I think the answer to this is yes. If you can save as favourites all the current ‘cool’ sites then I don’t think you ever need go out again.
You can buy everything you need from i-Tunes, Amazon and e-bay and can get your food shopping from Tesco home deliveries. Your entertainment can come from YouTube and i-Player. Your social life can come from Facebook. Anything you want to know can be found on Wikipedia. Sign up to the latest web crazes and you’ll be well informed, trendy and have all the friends you need. Get on the message boards for real ‘conversations’. Get on X-Box Live for real entertainment. Why would you want to go out with real people!
This is a link to the social networking website facebook:

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Whether I have used Web 1 or 2 to achieve all this is pretty irrelevant. Did anyone even know Web 1 was Web 1, did anyone care!



All that matters is that the natural development of the sites enables me to do more and more - and that they are more interactive, respond faster and can be manipulated to do what I want to do or see. Like looking at a Google earth map of a place I'm thinking of visiting to see whether it’s actually worth going or to check out the route. To do a virtual tour of a hotel that I want to stay in, rather than just look at a brochure. A 360 degree look at this stuff in real time would be better still - will this require Web 3?

This is a link to a YouTube video made by Michael Wesch which looks into ways we use Web2.0 and the way the web uses us. Wesch calls this video The machine is Us/ing Us
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Do Second life and Simulators serve useful purposes?

Two things in today’s lecture stood out, second life and simulators. This blog will look into answering the question do they serve any useful purpose?



Second life is literally that engaging in an unreal, artificial dream like world where you can pretend to be who you want, look like Brad Pitt rather than Homer Simpson get all the girls, success and money you can’t get in your real life. Is there any harm in this probably not, for some though further failure in their second life could drive some over the edge and even end up with them being suicidal.
Some could see their second life as a way of practicing for their first life. Trouble is it’s not real. There are some cross over’s now with reference to the Stock Exchange. You can even attend college.

This is a link to the new avatar film which uses avatars similar to second life.
http://www.avatarmovie.com/

Here is a link to second life.
http://secondlife.com/whatis/?lang=en-US

Simulators though are in some ways part of this and yet, their purpose in a training environment seems far more ‘normal’ and useful. Better to train someone to be a pilot or doctor in a safe simulation environment than in the real world where life and death are the consequences of your actions. Better to practice in an environment made as real as possible without the dire consequences. You can still build into simulations real emergencies to respond. Like the pilot who landed the plane on the river in America who said it was down to his training that he accomplished such a successful landing – part of which would have been on simulators.
So to answer the question second life no, simulators yes.