Will the SL become a Snow Crash a metaverse? “universe within a universe”

Many students have written essays about the novel Snow Crash (1992). This book by Neal Stephenson’s vision of virtual reality seems compelling, about how a virtual reality-based Internet might evolve in the near future. In the SL I need Lindens to make my avataar more appealing. what happens if someone buys stuff for me, are there strings attached, will they get back at me in the RL somehow? when does the virtual world become the RL? Drawing similarities between the SL and the metaverse of Stephenson’s novel: the SL allows us to let our thoughts and mind roam freely. The environment is controlled by the programmers. Do you think that our avataars are independent of the system?. Is it possible that the wealthier you become in the alternate space this cyber dimension, you will wield more power. Would this power translate into the RL?

GoTV

     GoTV Networks today launched Fantasy Sports Edge — the first and only mobile channel made for the millions of fantasy sports fanatics everywhere. In addition to providing up-to-the-minute sports news, Fantasy Sports Edge (FSE) allows users to customize and track up to three teams per sport — up to four leagues — with the “My Lineup” feature. According to statistics from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, 15 to 18 million people in the U.S. participate in a fantasy sports team annually, with that number continuing to grow rapidly each year.

Red Pocket Mobile

redpocketmobile

Call China and Singapore for the same price as a local call, 15c per minute.

“young crickets deep fried,” “cricket salad,” “breaded cricket,” “cricket noodle” and “peppered cricket.”

I prefer my protein elsewhere.

Breeders of crickets say the insects have become “finger food for beer drinkers”

Teleporting to SL from RL

Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG).

Folks are spending real money in the SL. Why! Is the SL opening up new career avenues?

“Every day, the 60,000-odd SL residents conduct 50,000 transactions trading everything from land to sunglasses. In the bargain, an economy has evolved that generates $2 million every month. single mother who’d much rather keep her real name private because she’s a rock star in the virtual world, she works long hours every day, designing clothes for citizens of SL. Her income, reportedly, runs into five figures. Yes, real-world dollars.”

The SL can bring out the Mr. Hyde in some folks, the less desirable socially unacceptable personality, since there are no social bindings. One may call it the cyber personality. A look at the police blotter shows the following: blatant personal attacks, fanning the fires of a flame war, pornographic littering with another resident’s name, indecency, spamming, trolling, flaming, global attacks, mature content in PG areas (I never saw any PG areas, the SL was a free for all entry). There were no safeguards at all. Every one seeks to speak his or her heart out some do it subtly, others are brash depending on the social space/environment, personality and now technology. If a person could not be identified, may be they could get angry or cruel too. The SL world dissipates all inhibitions of a person; he/she may cross the boundaries of socially acceptable behavior. How is this going to affect our society where we have strived over centuries to bring about decorum?
One may start believing in the make believe world. In the SL,  activities are largely geared towards seeking a partner. Preening and flaunting are rampant. The need to make money is another activity.

SL will probably take off in a big way in the next couple of years and it remains to be seen how the cash flow and online relationships affect the RL.

Anyone for RangnarokMobile

Reference:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1271788,curpg-3.cms

 

Mobile phone “Infections follow a biological pattern”

When it comes to cell phones, the smarter they are, the harder they fall – for viruses.

Mobile viruses can use short-range Bluetooth wireless connections, text messages, and memory cards to transmit infected files.

According to Miller, Bluetooth is a common means for viruses to spread, since physical proximity is all it takes for a virus to jump from phone to phone.

“Infections follow a biological pattern,” says Miller, describing an actual mobile-virus outbreak Symantec researchers studied. “They hopped from population center to population center like the common cold.”

New Media – Democracy and the truth.

Media Transparency is the concept of determining how and why information is conveyed through various means. The public needs to have the truth, whether it is via the traditional print or online news delivery with immediate updates.

It is common knowledge that the corporations, political groups and the media use television and mass media to influence the common man and the government to achieve their own ends. This oligarchy is most definitely not a democracy in the digital age. “Journalism in general in the United States tends to be fairly conventional and traditional. Even if reporters individually see themselves as liberal, the framework in which they work isn’t necessarily a liberal structure,” says Aly Colón, head of the diversity program at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank”[1]. Alternate Journalists with ethics and responsibility can form a coalition to portray the true story without hype, half truths or simplification. In addition, courageous independent citizen bloggers could help democracy by publishing the truth. These web loggers report news that the big 3 may ignore. For instance, a blogger from San Franciso, advocate Michael Petrelis reports stories the mainstream media chose to ignore. He took it upon himself to exercise the right to approach the FOIA regarding Judith Miller’s case. In the United States, The Freedom of Information Act is intended to increase the openness and transparency of government. Under the FOIA, the public can request records of government agencies. “In total, the three papers with daily circulations greater than one million–USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times — made just 36 requests of the Pentagon between 2000 and February 2005. USA Today made nine; the Journal, six; and the Times, 21” This data speaks volumes of the ennui that is prevalent amongst the top media outlets.

The largest television networks made slightly fewer requests than the top print outlets. CNN, the most-watched 24 hour news channel, made just 11 inquiries. Major U.S. news agencies requested list. Thanks to bloggers like Michael Petrelis, “Alternative journalism has lived up to the credo, to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable[2] (Randolph T. Holhut)”.

Weblogs are interactive, a person can go back in time and post a comment which could be picked up and replied to in turn. A breadcrumb trail or a threaded discussion is created, this thread being a continuous link or glue for the topic at hand. “Interactivity is the condition of communication in which simultaneous and continuous exchanges occur, and these exchanges carry a social, binding force (Networked Interactivity, Sheizaf Rafaeli)”.

 

Since weblogs are hyperlinked, we avoid the tendency to polarize a group. Successful communication results after a successful collaboration between the audience, the message, the medium, and the designers. The digital environment evolves and changes constantly. More than 100 countries are linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions. The web has become an indispensable tool for education, business and entertainment. There are billions of pages on the web, with thousands more being added every hour. E-mail, real time chatting by text, voice, video, file transfer, discussion groups, newsgroups, conferences, on line encyclopedias, real time game playing, distance learning, and the ability to log into remote computers are common.

On the other hand balkanization occurs in online communication due to segregation of like minded people bonding together on a common site. They never experience anything different other than what they chose to surround themselves with. If it were a newspaper they would perforce need to glance at a multitude of topics whilst flipping the pages.

 

There are very few visual similarities between the paper edition and on-line edition. The content, structure and presentation of news varies between print and online versions. The main image on the splash page changes every few hours in the online version. Rolling advertisements are constantly displayed on the screen, more color in the online version. The editor of the printed paper decides where to place the story, above or below the fold depending on its importance. The online editor has more space constraints; he has to grab the readers attention by incorporating smaller capsules in every screen. Information is dense many links are provided to various stories. A distinguishing feature on the online front page is a link to a pod cast summarizing the top headlines every weekday.

You can perform a search for multimedia files: Audio Slide Show, Interactive Feature, Slide Show, Photographer’s Journal, Editor’s Pick. Installing RSS feeds brings latest news to our doorstep.

 

“Ultimately, it is not so much the technology that is important but the facility, and not the medium but the delivery. We must start to see through the technology, instead of staring at it. The transition from an old world of static information to a new, fluid and dynamic communications environment necessitates considerable, and ongoing, reinvention.” (Jannuzzi 11, 12)

Works Cited:

Jannuzzi, Michelle., Smith, Richard. thoughts on cross-media design. 1st ed. Switzerland: Gabrielle Capelli Editore, 2000.

“internet.com.” Webopedia. internet.com. 15 Feb. 2006 www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/W3C.html

Williams, Josh. “Are they really separated?.” Stop Design. 10 2003. 26 Mar. 2006 <http://www.stopdesign.com/log/2003/10/14/separated.html>.

Sunstein, C. (2004). Democracy and filtering. Communications of the ACM, 47 (12), 57-59.

Matheson, D.(2004). Weblogs and the epistemology of the news:some trends in online journalism. New Media & Society, 6(4). 443-468.

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol2/issue4/rafaeli.sudweeks.html

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[1] http://foi.missouri.edu/mediacredibility/nwsrmconserv.html

[2] http://www.brasscheck.com/seldes/history.html

 

 

ALREADY addicted to the SL

I am thinking that the SL is a great escape from papers and research.

I am thinking I will stay there with the weirdo’s and crazies. Maybe I will join up with the Linden’s and play God in that alternate Universe.

Heck! Maybe I shall create my own Universe with Maya and Poser, better than the SL.

I won’t reveal my penniless (not about to waste my $ in a fake world)avataar here, come see me in the SL. When I become old and decrepit, hopefully this technology would have advanced far enough so that I could download myself into this thaumaturgical world and make merry. Maybe my neurons will merge with the computer circuitry and I can be as one with the machine. When my physical being is no more I would have initialised a complete download into the alternate world, and live on to eternity. Maybe you will all join me there!

Prior to all this we will need laws as safeguards against who knows what new obstacles and consequences that may arise. Shall we meet in the SL to discuss and formulate a strategic plan regarding ethical concerns, SL goo issues, and safenets from going under waterfalls in BLiss Perfect.

 

 

 

Aula

The Aula Weblog

“In 2007, when WiMax becomes widely available, making a city wireless will take almost no effort”

WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is wireless broadband access technology built on the 802.16 standard, and is considered the next revolution in wireless. A single 802.16 hotspot can deliver capacity of up to 40 megabits per second (Mbps) per channel, or enough bandwidth to support hundreds of businesses with T-1 speed connectivity.

Your city could be next (Check out MuniWireless.com’s list of networked cities).

http://tech.msn.com/microsoft/article.aspx?cp-documentid=812177&GT1=8596