Wikileaks

I just wanted to write a little bit about Wikileaks in general. It has always been a hot topic in Swedish news because the wikileaks website is hosted in Sweden. And the swedish political party "Piratparitet" (the Pirate Party) is going to host wikileaks newer servers. I am not sure why but there must be something about swedish internet laws that makes it a great country for these kinds of websites (The Pirate Bay being another example of a questionable website that can't be taken down). It seems hard to prosecute anyone in Sweden for what they put on the internet.

Recently, a couple of months back, after a visit in Sweden Julian Assange was arrested in his absence because of accusations of rape. However the case was quickly withdrawn as there was no real evidence. Some believe that wikileak enemies where behind it to get Assange behind bars.

There is no doubt that Wikileaks is controversial. Also, without the internet, it is likely that this would have never happened. The internet has allowed it to reach everyone without even the U.S. stopping it. That just shows what a powerful tool the internet is. But wether it is the right thing to do or not is up for debate.

Wikileaks related to The Matrix

While reading the Wikileak articles, the entire thing reminded me of The Matrix. The whole idea of the articles saying that the general public does not know what is really going on with the war in the middle east. Julian Assange is the one that is trying to let everyone know the truth about the war, just as in The Matrix, Neo and Morpheus are trying to eventually get all of the other humans to understand the truth about the world they live in. The biggest controversy with the release of wikileaks is about the public reacting badly to the information that they learn, and they will not know how to deal with it, at least, that is what the government argues. Julian Assange just thinks that people should be educated about what is going on in their world, and especially know what their government is doing. We are typically kept in the dark by our government, just as the people from The Matrix are blind to the real world.

One of the videos that Julian Assange posted was this. What is going on is that American soldiers are shooting civilians that were unarmed and posing no threat to them. Our government does not want a bad reputation so they are doing what they can to stop Julian from posting these leaked videos.

A good scene I found from The Matrix that relates to the wikileaks situation is this youtube post.

"Why the world needs WikiLeaks"

I found this TED video on WikiLeaks, "Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks". It's a little long, but the creator, Assange, discusses how WikiLeaks works and why he thinks it is important for the public to know some secret information. He talks about a few specific instances, like how a leaked document affected an Kenyan election. WikiLeaks is a form of collective intelligence because it allows people to contribute anonymously in attempt to change situations and the world.

Do We Support Digital Monopolies?

Browsing the internet, I found an interesting link to an editorial on the Wall Street Journal Online. Aptly titled In the Grip of the New Monopolists, the writer Tim Wu makes a very interesting critique on current internet trends, mainly about the development of Web 2.0. He draws striking parallels between the behaviors of Google and Facebook and older monopolies like the former AT&T. He shows how consumers willingly flock to these companies because size equates to efficiency, yet he gives a strong warning that once these monopolies past their golden age, they refuse to relinquish their control. He contests that this scenario is very detrimental to consumers because it halts the trend of progress and restrains the lassie-faire competition model. His message is one of foreshadowing of a darker future for the internet than what we have discussed in class.

Is Wu justified in his concerns about the power of the new internet monopolists? Or will we, the users, keep them accountable so his vision never comes to fruition?

You Pick the Price: Music Lovers Dream

Throughout the years copyright altering methods such as Creative Commons and Open Source media have grown in popularity. Using these different methods, musicians, artists and other creative personnel can create works of art that can be either completely open to public use, or can be used in whatever way the creator specifies. These are great alternatives to the concrete copyright laws that exist in the music, photo, and film industry today, but there is something else that can keep people from breaking through through these harsh copyright laws in an attempt to get music for cheap or even for free.

In 2007, Radiohead, one of the world's most popular bands of the generation decided to release their new album, In Rainbows, as a digital download. This wasn't just any release though. They let their fans choose what price they would like to pay for the album. You could enter in $0.00 or as much as you liked to pay for the album. Girl Talk, an artist discussed in Brett Gaylor's film Rip! A Remix Manifesto also tried on the Radiohead method for size when he released his album Feed the Animals in 2008, letting fans choose their price. Greg Gillis, or Girl Talk, was quoted saying he wanted to "make it easier for people to get their hands on the music, which is my number one priority." Whether it is a matter of distribution and getting the music out there to fans, or if it is about making money from those loyal fans, it is an effective method that more musicians should look towards in the future. Not only does it get the music more widely spread in the community, but it discourages people from downloading the music illegally because they can choose to reward the artist for their work or to get it for free if they want.

Google and Facebook Rivalry Takes Centerstage.

An article by Alexei Oreskovic describes brewing rivalry between Google and Facebook. The competition between the two billion dollar corporations has intensified since Facebook introduced a plans to release a new version of its messenger - that could challenge Gmail. I know both Gmail and Facebook have huge numbers of users so it will be interesting to see if the Facebook email will develop a following like Gmail has. I remember when Myspace developed an email technology. From what I remember it flopped. But maybe in this time of a convergence a social networking site may be able to create a successful emailing technology.

Convergence Discussion Q's

Convergence vs Remix: What are the views of the future of culture according to each?

CH 4: Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars

1. What’s the main point of this chapter?

2. Why is it called that?

3. How does web innovation and especially consumer-generated content influence the mainstream film industry today?

4. How will it in the future?

CH 6: Photoshop for Democracy

1. Why was the Your Fired Video so popular?

2. Jenkins writes: “The new political culture—just like the new popular culture—reflects a pull and tug of these two media systems: one broadcast and commercial the other narrowcast and grassroots.” (211) What does he mean by this? How did these two come together in the Obama campaign?

3. On what grounds does Joe Trippi discount convergence and why does Jenkins disagree?

4. What is culture jamming?

5. Pierre Levy writes: “Until now we have only reappropriated speech in the service of revolutionary movements, crises, cures, exceptional acts of creation. What would normal, calm, established appropriation of speech be like?” What does Jenkins think?

6. How is the Daily show a form of resistance or of public engagement?

Conclusion

1. How does convergence encourage participation and collective intelligence?

2. Why does it matter?

3. On what grounds does Jenkins critique “critical pessimists.”

4. How is literacy different today than it was 15 years ago?

5. How will people learn skills so that they can fully participate?