Final Blog Prompt

What does it all mean? Well, I think the future of the internet is completely up in the air. On the one hand, I really enjoy the freedom the internet seems to give to media consumers, like myself. The ability to interact with the worlds we enjoy is a major selling point of new media to me. On the other hand, established media formats, like newspapers, are dying, and quickly. It will be interesting to see how they cope with the changing times.

I have friends that work for the newspaper industry. One friend works for the Naperville Sun's sports section. He has covered NCC's sports teams on several occassions, opening our sports to a wider audience and sharing ourr teams with the local community. He is staring right into the eyes of a very possible layoff in the near future, thanks to the economy and the decrease in newspaper sales. I like the newspaper format, but it is hard to fit it into the modern busy lifestyle. I don't know how to save the newspapers, but something has to happen.

At the same time, I really enjoy being able to easily find and interact with likeminded people on the internet. I am slowly exploring things I never would have before, had I not had the internet to do so. The internet has actually caused me to seek out other forms of media, like comic books. Comic books can be a very complicated medium to get into. The plotlines are constantly changing, past events are frequently retconned out of existence. Spider-man has more than 4 different comic series released about him at the moment. I would have been scared away from this aspect of geekdom without the internet, but with it I was able to meet other comic readers and get a feel for what the hobby is all about. This is where I think the internet is going.

The Music Industry's Downward Spiral

Today's in class discussion regarding the changes underway in the music industry as a result of new media got me thinking about several examples where this is both a good and bad thing. For many in in the music industry, jobs will be lost by those that are unable or unwilling to change how they do their work. At the same time, it takes a lot of dead weight off of the industry, as the middle man plays a smaller and smaller role.

It is a change that is really good for the lesser known musicians. They now can do almost all of the work as far as promoting goes either in their own living room, or with a small investment at a recording studio. It promotes new bands becoming popular based more on merit than on luck or chance. It also opens up the niche genres to a much wider audience than ever before possible.

The change also benefits larger artists. Bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are making the transition to releasing content on their own terms. They have the money to finance larger promotional campaigns that are a trademark of the major labels, yet at the same time maintain full control of how this campaign is run. They keep more of the profits, and they end up releasing material that stays truer to their original vision.

The following is an interesting analysis of Trent Reznor's opinions on music in the digital age by Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose, creators of Digg.

Nerds in the Digital Age

I recently completed an online ethnography of the table top wargaming community. I mainly focused on the community surrounding a set of two integrated games called Warmachine and Hordes. The day after I submitted my ethnography, Privateer Press, the maker of these two games, made an announcement on their website. The company announced that they would be releasing a second edition of the rules. All of the current rules would be completely revised for clarity and ease of play.

The interesting thing about all of this is that Privateer Press will be unveiling the working copy of these new rules on their website. They players to use the rules on their own, and then write back on the message boards about their likes and dislikes of the changes. It allows the entire community to test the rules and give feedback before the new rulebook goes to print. I don't think anything similar has been done before. It really speaks to how the internet has given a voice to the masses, a way for the larger community to directly affect their favorite pastime.

Politics - In the Land of the Blind

With recent current events being what they are, I've found myself paying more and more attention to politics. I obviously turn to the internet for a lot of my information, but I do so while keeping in mind the concept of political polarization. Although I didn't have a word for it until monday's class, I nevertheless sensed the presence of polarization in all of my internet interactions. The seemingly constant bickering between sides, the inability to work together on any issue, and the apparent stagnation of the idea of compromise are all trademarks of this phenomenon. All that said, I still didn't realize how polarized the internet actually could be until my dad sent me a link to what he described as a 'hilarious blog.' This link sent me to iOwnTheWorld.com. It was here that I found the political cartoon I post here.


And yes, that is only page 1 (The rest of the comic can be found here: The Obamas #18). I consider myself to be a left leaning moderate. I don't really agree completely with either political party. However, the picture of Bill O'Reilly slanting towards the left made me cringe. I can't stand watching his show, but the reason for that is usually because I find him too pushy and biased towards being conservative. It is hard for me to imagine how far right a person has to be to feel that O'Reilly has a liberal slant.

Blogging and the new administration

With the recent inauguration of President Barack Obama, and the new administration, my attention has been drawn to how new media is impacting how we interact with our government. The internet has certainly provided our society with many new ways to communicate with each other, but the government has never really seemed to grasp the new media. As we talked in class about how Barack Obama's campaign utilized the internet to a much larger extent than in years past, it seemed only natural that he would continue this into his presidency, and he has.

One of the cool features of the site is that a blog is set up. detailing every executive order, signed bill, and other related action taken by the president, along with a press release. I think this is an amazing step forward in creating openness in the government, as it really makes all of these documents easily findable right on the website of the White House.

A post and apology (Postology?)

So this is my first real blog post of the term. And why does that matter? Well, this is the beginning of the third week of classes. Therefor I am behind. Chalk it up to a new school, procrastination, what have you, but really there is no excuse for it. So, my apologies, I will be posting much more frequently from this point on.

That said, I have a few reactions about the interview by Rebecca Blood with Jason Kottke. I found it to be a very unique insight into the blogging life. I've been reading blogs for a few years now, and never really gave a thought to how this activity is viewed by bloggers themselves. I also found it inspiring. I now have a desire to keep my own blog. I am also a new reader of kottke.org.

I really liked how Kottke treated blogging as a representation of himself. That is, he blogs about his interests and thoughts. His links represent who he is, and his hope is that a piece of himself comes through in his writings. I think this is a key for success in blogging: make sure you enjoy what you're writing about.

I was also blown away by how much time he spends working on his blog. It truly is a full work day spent on the blog. Considering that the general view of a blog is as a hobby or means of entertainment, the fact he was able to make a living from his blogging is both interesting and inspiring.

First Blog Post

In the beginning, Russ created...