2011年11月30日 星期三

Digital Knowledge Sharing

1) What is a brief history of the encyclopedia?
Encyclopedia has appeared for almost 2000 years as summaries of extant scholarship in forms comprehensible to reader. the oldest work is Naturalis Historia which is written in ca. 77 CE by Pliny the Elder. Encyclopedias were written by clergypersons in Middle Ages. there are different encyclopedias from various countries for example, China, Japan and so forth. Now, the encyclopedia has been globalized . The free and digital Encyclopedia has also appeared on internet for user to read, download and quote.

2) What are some key features of that encyclopedia
a) according to Wikipedia
Encyclopaedias can be general, including articles on the topics of every field but from a particular cultural, ethnic or normal perspective

the aim of encyclopedic is to convey the important accumulated knowledge for the subject domain, such as an encyclopaedia of medicine, philosophy, or law.

the systematic method of organization is essential to making an encyclopaedia usable as a work of reference. they are the alphabetical method and hierarchical categories.

there is increasing effect on the collection, verification, summation and presentation of information of all kinds in modern multimedia and the information age.

b) according to Encyclopedia Brittannica
a multivolume compendium of all available knowledge, complete with maps and a detailed index, as well as numerous adjuncts such as bibliographies, illustrations, lists of abbreviations and foreign expressions, gazetteers and so forth. it is expected to include biographies of the significant men and women so that many people with their own language would have involved editing.
Encyclopaedias hace also come in all sizes , from a single 200-page volume written by one man to giant sets of 100 volumes or more.
the range of coverage of knowledge has varied according to the time and country of publication. Illustrations, atlases, and bibliographies have been omitted from many encyclopaedias, and for a long time it was not thought fitting to include biographies of living persons.

3) Which encyclopedia was most useful for this research?
i believe Encyclopedia Brittannica is much more useful than Encyclopedia. it is because of the historical background that Encyclopædia Britannica has been providing knowledge and information to people for almost 250 years. some scholars also have contributed to this Encyclopedia Brittannica such as Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie etc.
furthermore, the source and information are much more abundant than wikipedia.
therefore, because of its reliability, abundance of information and history, i would think Encyclopedia Brittannica was most useful.

4) Can you trust this encyclopedia (the one you used) 100%? Why or why not?
though this encyclopedia are useful, i still can not 100% trust in it. it is because there is a function that everybody can edit on the information. and i am not clear about the structure and functioning behind these encyclopedia. the reliability of these pages are still not higher than searching on books where we believe the author has done serious research on. after all, internet is so easy to access that the information can not be treated seriously.

2011年11月29日 星期二

generated digital meida

a) How many viewers are estimated to have watched the you tube video?
until 30/11/2011. the accumulated watching rate is 41,961,194.

b) How would you rate the video?
I think this video is very annoying that the man (Chris Crocker) pretends to be a woman and keep screaming and crying in the clips. I don't really know the purpose of the movie, but i can see his enjoyment from making this clip. from the point of technique, the techniques he used is so simple. so if i rate it from this perspective, it's low.

c) Is it of high quality in technical terms? Is it interesting aesthetically e.g. camera angles, use of light, the narrative, and so on?
in the whole video, there is no various change of the camera angle. the room light is used as the source of light. it is obviously that we can not count it as high quality in technical terms.

d) Does it raise interesting socio-cultural issues?
when i first watch this video, i have no idea on his purpose of making this video. but actually he is raising the issue of privacy and freedom of artist. he is criticizing the public and paparazzi who are violating and exploiting freedom of his idol, Brittany. he seeks for freedom for Brittany and calls on leaving Britney away by making this video.
apart from protesting for privacy of artist, by reading the comments made on this video, people care much more on his gender, homosexual or not. it also raises the concern on cross gender issue. actually, he can accuse for this by his male identity. But he blurs his gender that audience thinks he is a woman. is it because it is more convincing to be so emotional by acting as a woman?

e) Do you think deserved the attention that it received from the Internet community?
from the comments under this video, we can see that the audience concerns about the gender of the man, the proclaim of leaving Britney (generally speak, the artist) alone. these are the controversial issues that appears in reality. so, it deserves the attention.

d) Briefly describe the video
In the video,the man with woman-like make up repeated saying " leave Brittany alone" and crying for this. He is depressed that people want to earn money from Britney without considering her own feelings. it is sad that the public is so unfair to such professional. he begs the public and paparazzi to leave Britney alone.

e) Find at least one interesting video, based on Crocker’s or Bus Uncle, and upload it to your blog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mfPkU_UJu0

f) Report some positive and negative comments about this new ability for computer users to make and widely distribute and respond to online films (such as the above three videos). (eg see Leadbeater, We-think, xviii; Burgess and Green, Youtube, Cambridge: Polity, 2009, 10…, 21-30).

positive comments:
yo i just busted out laughing when she said i ma gonna shit my pants
starranker21 1week ago

lol this is an awesome remake thank you so very much!!!! :) mad my week.
Xanderge21 2 weeks ago

Before I started to hear singing I was like- :o?
When the song started I was like- O.O
Then I wwas like- XD
RandomUploader12345 3 weeks ago

negative comments:
Idiot homo, I love parodies and lady gaga but this is just insulting to all!
bozcro 2 months ago

This is sooooooooo weird! @ first I didnt even kno if this wuz a boy or girl! lol.
Dinomiters 2 months ago

Modern Times: pros and cons of new technologies

• In a couple of paragraphs, summarize the way that Chaplin is affected by new technology in the beginning of the film Modern Times.
firstly, the new technology separates every process of work. it fragments every step of work. for example, the only work Chaplin needs to do is to tighten the screws on the pipeline. the repeated work makes Chaplin out of control of his body even when he stops. but this work is so simple that every one can replace him. new technology doesn't require exclusive professional.

secondly, Chaplin's movement is limited by the machine that he needs to catch up with pipeline to do his work. when Chaplin misses once, he needs to catch up with it and start his work again. New technology is not a live machine that can facilitate human being, but people need to follow it.

• Then discuss any similarities or differences in the way you experience common digital technologies such as computers and the Internet.

the second characteristic particularly impresses me that when i am almost running out of time and is about to hand in paper which is being finished by computer, the computer suddenly stops and the work is gone. i can not control the computer (the machine). instead, because of the accident, i need to do it again. the computer controls my time, my progress.

that is also true that everybody can be able to manipulate the program in computer. as long as we have learnt the basic knowledge of the program, everyone can do their work with the program as it does not change or vary. in other word, every one can replace me unless they do not how to operate the machine.