And I think that

it will make for a great story someday...

DAS BOOT

sorry to be shady and use you in my project (again) without telling you (again), pat

...

Too many words.

Play Money revisited

http://www.mmostreet.com/Main.php

Fax machines

The computer is grand and all, but you gotta give the fax machines some props. They're pretty masterful in their quiet way, pardoning the paper jams here and there.

Low residency's the thing, I see

Interesting.

Connecting

In order to use the Internet for its original purpose -- sharing information -- rather than for just chatting with friends and partaking in the occasional Facebook stalk, I have decided to learn about the Internet through utilizing its resources.

Or, to be more clear, I wish to learn more about Dreamweaver and anything about Flash through online tutorials and perhaps question-and-answer bulletin boards, should any exist. Ideally, I'd also like to start using blogs as a means of communicating with others, beyond writing for class or maintaining my personal blog.

Through acquiring the shared knowledge available online, I will be able to produce what I hope will be a professional, functional website for Division III gymnastics.

It's on.

I'll keep you posted.

Yay!

Dr. Reid's post on the course blog made me smile, for I have successfully completed all of those tasks.

Last night, a good friend of mine who attends Sarah Lawrence College was perusing my blog. "Wow, you guys do podcasts? What do you do with them after they're recorded?" she wanted to know immediately. "Where are the blogs of other people in your class?"

I directied her to the course blog and explained all of the tenets of the course -- the various blogs, the podcasting, the Wiki, etc. "That's so cool," she said. "I wish we had something like that here."

She's got a point. Not only have we done a substantial amount of work in various forms, but it's all available on the Internet for anyone to view. I think we can be proud of our class's accomplishments, especially as the first group to take this strictly-online version of Writing in Cyberspace. Cortland is in the midst of the cyber evolution of education.

Good work, everyone, and if I don't catch you online, perhaps I'll, I don't know, see you in person or something. :-)

Wikipedia

I've been keeping up with the course Wiki throughout the semester, as evidenced by my angry blog entries in which I wished to battle the website because...I was dumb and forgot to log in, hence not having some work acknowledged.

That said, I was working on a couple of entries yesterday when it dawned on me: This really isn't that bad. Or hard. It's neither, actually. The most difficult part about the Wiki, in fact, is remembering to do it. But other than that, it has not destroyed my soul in any manner. I enjoy having the power to correct other's entries and figure out how to provide the most "accurate" definition. Actually using the Wiki has made me more skeptical about the information I search for on Wikipedia. After all, if hacks like me can post on there, who knows what other information people are posting.

I think a particularly interesting assignment would be for Dr. Reid to ask us to define one term -- the same term -- in our personal blogs. The variance, I'm sure, would be great. Such an exercise would show just how difficult it is to have one authoritative source of information. Wikipedia may not have the final say, but with the evolution of history and science, neither do the academics.

NeoVox Articles

The NeoVox assignment was probably one the most obvious examples of "writing in cyberspace" (besides the blogs). I really enjoyed the informality of the articles. We were not restricted to any particular topic besides that our article should pertain in some way to what we've been discussing. There was a good variety in the topics that my classmates chose to write about, and an interesting mix between the technical and the personal.

While I would have liked more feedback on my pieces, I recognize that much of the class is already working hard to stay on task with other online postings. I'm also quite used to the workshop atmosphere of other writing classes, in which everyone is graded on how they respond to their peers. In a way, then, this makes the more informal workshop relaxing -- we can make comments without feeling that we need to overhaul the piece or make up things to correct.

I'm a fan of the "magazine style" of writing -- information mixed with a bit of narrative and perhaps some humor, too. Overall, I'd say that this assignment nicely complemented our other tasks. It's helped me try to synthesize what I feel to be two major questions of the class:

1) What is the meaning of these technological changes on society?

2) How do we adapt and benefit from them to move forward?

Final Podcast

Rachel and I convened in G-17, as always, for our final podcast. We've come quite a long way from that first experience. Instead of plotting what we plan to discuss beforehand, one person starts with a statement and the rest of the podcast follows from there. However, we've never scripted our recordings, and I feel that's important; spontaneity is interesting and can actually allow us to come up with connections that we hadn't thought of previously.

The first podcast took several days. We began with a lunch session of planning topics to discuss. Then we had other sessions of figuring out GarageBand, doing the podcast, editing and checking over it, and finally uploading it (and praying that it would safely find a home on iTunesU). Our final podcast took perhaps half of an hour. We said what we wanted to say, cut out the awkward pauses at the beginning and end of the sound clips, added some sweet jingles, and that was that.

The podcasts should definitely remain in this class. Honestly, I enjoyed that we were essentially free to talk about what we wished. I think that Rachel and I did a good job of staying "on task" in relating our discussions to the class. The time limit was the most difficult aspect; we found that we had a good deal to say, but had to limit it. However, the time limit steers the recording from meandering too far. As some classmates have suggested on the course blog, creating a system in which the class has to listen and provide feedback to the podcasts would be useful. This would ensure that everyone listens to each other, and allow people to learn from other's opinions of their podcast.

Is there any sort of career that utilizes podcasting? While I can't exactly imagine corporations throwing money at me so I can produce their podcasts, it sure is fun to do.

Home and Work

If the line between work and play has become blurred, so has the line between work and home. Although Dibbell states that the downfall of his marriage was not due to his work with Play Money, he mentions how some especially hardcore players have ruined their relationships by exerting so much effort into their games. One would imagine that many of these players are using computers in their homes. The wife (speaking generally -- I'm sure there are exceptions) can physically see her husband. She can glance over his shoulder and look at what he's doing. But this "home within a home" for a husband is a world that she cannot enter. It's easy to imagine her frustrations. Her husband is tangible, yet gone into a virtual realm that she cannot access.

Traditionally, workers can "leave business at the office" and return to home as a place of refuge and relaxation. Now the computer screen glows as a constant reminder that "there is always more to be done." For those who work at home, the only time they close business is when they turn off the computer and walk away from the desk. Yet instead of a commute, their office is a button and a few keystrokes away.

Dibbell enjoys working out of various Flying J rest stops, taking the time to pause and look around him in his quest to meet his April goal. And indeed, computer-based work does allow for mobility. Yet one can easily imagine family vacations interrupted by clacking on the keyboard, "just to read this one e-mail really quickly." I took an online class over the summer and brought my laptop with me on a family vacation to Colorado. While I wouldn't say that having the computer with me detracted from the "vacation" experience, I felt obligated to do work and communicate with friends from home (not that I DIDN'T want to communicate with them, mind you) just because I had access to do so.

My future career will involve writing in some (hopefully great) capacity. But if the majority of my work took place at home, I wonder if I'd begin to resent people who traveled to and from their jobs. I'd want the change in scenery. The people surrounding me. The ability to say, "I am DONE for the day!" and go...home.

Question for Dr. Reid!!!

If you can help me with this burning question, that would be glorious. It relates to another class -- Evolution of Writing -- but it's still "writing in cyberspace," no? :-)

I am currently making a webpage on Dreamweaver, and I want to insert a movie clip from YouTube and have it play right there on the page. I have seen you do this on several occasions. I embedded the link that YouTube gave, and a box shows up, but the box turns white when I press Play. I think I'm supposed to upload some applications and the like, but my experimenting has so far proved fruitless. So therefore...what do I do?

THANK YOU!

As the semester winds down,

I realize that one of the positive aspects of this class is that our accomplishments are posted on the Internet, easily accessible and difficult to lose. We can see who has been posting and who hasn't, listen to the podcasts, watch the movies, and perhaps read the articles if more get published on NeoVox. As someone who is very intent on getting all assignments finished at the proper time, I like being able to keep track of what I've done. (Besides, of course, in the cases where I couldn't find my Wiki entries, but I'm trying to be strong.)

Online education encourages self-discipline. The student has to remember to check the particular pages and complete the necessary tasks without verbal reminders in class. This class has also created a sort of bond for those of us who have found each other in person and asked, "You're in Cyberspace, right?" Heck, I've talked to some of these people more than I've communicated with classmates in face-to-face classes, like History 101.

On that note of self-discipline, the amount of fresh topics on the course blog has dwindled. I'm wondering if it's from a lack of posting, or perhaps a lack of new things to share. Although it's not my group's week to post, I followed Philip's lead and posted anyway. I was really intrigued by Play Money and may write my NeoVox article based on the conundrum of work and play.

Let's keep truckin'!

Scholars' Day

To everyone who came to the "Page to Stage" reading -- thank you!!!

I saw GarageBand hard at work at several sessions. I'm curious to know about the quality of the recordings. What will they be used for? Will they be put onto iTunesU? Any editing first? It's a unique way of preserving the day's events besides videotaping, especially since all of the events I attended relied almost solely on words rather than images.

Deeper into the virtual economy

Play Money has an addictive quality. I found myself at page 200 yesterday rather unexpectedly, curious to see what would happen next. I particularly like the "evidence" that Dibbell employs, such as the online conversations, blog entries, and letters. It's become an adventure story.

"For every new digital application we adopt, the same decision must be made, consciously or not: to affirm that some make-believe replica or another is, for all pragmatic intents, as good as real" (109).

This quote is the most succinct argument I've heard for, "Everyone needs to chill out about technology if we're going to use it." In a sense it's that willing suspense of disbelief required for reading fiction. If a new piece of technology seems useful -- such as the computer, as Dibbell points to -- then we don't need to hem and haw about the loss of paper. The computer will do the same job in a more efficient manner.

And so the same point goes for virtual economies. "It's ridiculous! It's pointless!" Etc. Dibbell doesn't deny that his quests is somewhat absurd. But at the same time, it's undeniable that these games are taken seriously by a good number of people who, within the context of the game, hone their craft and have a great deal of success. Who's to say it's not more ludicrous to devote one's life to the collection and spending of paper dollars? To have a job in creating webpages which, technically, are intangible? To work entirely online, for that matter? We're all heavily invested, to some degree, in cyberspace: an entity that is not really there.

But here we are anyway, and here are these words.

And at least gold coins are a lot cooler-looking than American coins.

Wednesday

I'm a pretty big stalker and noticed that Liz had this on her blog. Come to "Page to Stage" on Scholars' Day!!! :-)

Dear Wiki,

Thank you for consistently refusing to load the page and losing my changes.

Blacksnow had particular success with items from the Dark Age of Camelot, a game produced by Mythic Entertainment, Inc. Blacksnow ignored the end-user license agreement, which explicitly stated that "playing the Game for commercial, business, or income-seeking purposes is strictly prohibited" (15). When Mythic received wind of Blacksnow's business, it contacted eBay and had the auctions shut down in the name of violating intellectual property rights. Blacksnow in turn filed a lawsuit against Mythic, citing "unfair business practices" and "interference with prospective economic advantage" (16). -- To store here and re-paste when the page is functioning again.

Must be all that snow.