lschlanger


Author Archive

Nov 24 2010

Which one is real?

Published by

First, that zombie game was awesome and I cannot wait to see what other things like it come out in the next few years. From the discussion we had regarding augmented reality, I am sad to hear that it will be a while before augmented reality becomes both visual and tangible…at least in the way it is done in Iron Man. One new question I have regarding augmented reality is whether it will be implemented on the iPad or not. Since it has a bigger screen, it would allow people to see more and place more information over what the camera has picked up. At the same time, though, the iPad is bigger and may tire people out faster from holding it up. Any opinions on this?

Another example of integrating augmented reality that I am sure is in someone else’s post is the Sixth Sense machine that was featured during a TED Talk. Instead of the information being shown on a screen, the information is projected onto the objects that are being interacted with. I am sure there will be a place for each method of transmitting augmented reality in the future if not more.

Regarding the uses of augmented reality, I am not surprised that one of its first uses is as a marketing gimmick. It would be interesting to see how much Halmark makes off of its new augmented reality cards. What I really want to see though is where else augmented reality can be used. I have already mentioned archaeology, but what about the hard sciences like chemistry and biology. Physics would be great because when your teacher attempts to demonstrate how whether you throw an imaginary cat (Fluffy) off of a cliff or drop it straight down it will hit the ground at the same time (true story) you will be able to pull out whatever device and watch it fall off to the ground. The possibilities are endless.

Nov 21 2010

2 layers of reality

Published by

Augmented reality seems to take many forms. What would the world be like if people could essentially cast illusions over the world?

Some forms of augmented reality are utilized in academic fields such as archaeology. What other areas are making use of augmented reality and how are they using it?

Is there any research about making augmented reality tangible like the panels Tony Stark uses in Iron Man 1 and 2?

Nov 18 2010

Virtual Worlds Part 2

Published by

These were the questions that I had for the articles this week:

1. In the virtual worlds journal article, the study focuses on the different shopping experiences tried by various companies in Second Life. A lot of the articles we have read over this semester have focused on various strategies businesses have tried to make a profit from these new realities. My question is, what other experiences are being replicated in the virtual realm and what effects will this have on the experience of humanity over time?

2. Over the course of human history, humans have been over coming barriers of all sorts; geographical, intellectual, economical, etc. Regarding our desire as humans to interact with one another, it seems like all we are missing is a way to instantly transport our physical bodies to anywhere in the world. From the articles and the videos we have watched, it is clear that in substitute of teleporters people are using virtual worlds as a common ground that everyone has instant access to (depending on their connection speed). Should this meeting in a virtual forum be replicated in the “real” world, would we see similar interactions?

3. One thing made clear in the article on virtual world ethics is that when dealing in cyberspace as in real-space there will be vandals to deal with; in this case hackers. More and more, various aspects of our lives are appearing online. Therefore, are we going to need to add some of the counter aspects to the cyber world and could those possibly be the jobs of the future? For example, creating a cyber police force to “arrest” hackers?

Like many weeks, I feel that my questions were not greatly touched on, but that could be because the types of questions I ask seem to be on topics that we do not have a chance to cover in class.  I can try to answer my first and third questions though. In class, we spoke of Chinese online “gold farmers” who essentially are paid to grind through games and obtain high demand items to sell to other players. While this example does not take place solely inside the virtual worlds, it is a replication of hiring people to do the grunt work so that others can benefit. Ethics aside, the gold digger job reflects the transformations taking place regarding possible jobs for the future. If we as a society are going to center more and more of our lives around technology, then we will need unskilled jobs as well as skilled jobs for people to do. Perhaps instead of trying to directly translate jobs to cyberspace we should be stripping jobs down to a basic category such as skilled, unskilled, or grunt work and see what facets of society will require such jobs.

A slightly random thought: during class we watched a video of someone creating an object for Second Life. Just about anyone can do it or could figure out how to do it similar to how people of various skills create websites. One only needs so many people in order to maintain a site and arguably this theory could translate to those who create Second Life objects or just virtual world objects in general. The only flaw with utilizing these virtual worlds as a method of obtaining an income though is it is only feasible if the site continues. I do wonder if it is not the time to start figuring out how to add some regulation type institutions into some of these worlds. I could easily see a panic if too many people stake their livelihood on a virtual world only to lose everything in one day and not receive anything for it…very similar to the Great Depression.  It will be interesting to see where this will end up in 5 or 10 years.

Nov 14 2010

Virtual-Real Environments

Published by

1. In the virtual worlds journal article, the study focuses on the different shopping experiences tried by various companies in Second Life. A lot of the articles we have read over this semester have focused on various strategies businesses have tried to make a profit from these new realities. My question is, what other experiences are being replicated in the virtual realm and what effects will this have on the experience of humanity over time?

2. Over the course of human history, humans have been over coming barriers of all sorts; geographical, intellectual, economical, etc. Regarding our desire as humans to interact with one another, it seems like all we are missing is a way to instantly transport our physical bodies to anywhere in the world. From the articles and the videos we have watched, it is clear that in substitute of teleporters people are using virtual worlds as a common ground that everyone has instant access to (depending on their connection speed). Should this meeting in a virtual forum be replicated in the “real” world, would we see similar interactions?

3. One thing made clear in the article on virtual world ethics is that when dealing in cyberspace as in real-space there will be vandals to deal with; in this case hackers. More and more, various aspects of our lives are appearing online. Therefore, are we going to need to add some of the counter aspects to the cyber world and could those possibly be the jobs of the future? For example, creating a cyber police force to “arrest” hackers?

Nov 10 2010

Video Games Part 2

Published by

I am a gamer. Not just a casual gamer, but a hard core gamer. I do not just play video games, though. I also follow the trends and news related to video games. I feel that the questions I posted for this week reflect and were inspired by the knowledge I have gained over the years.

For example, in my first question I asked if video games as a forum for media is protected by free speech. I asked this question because of a case currently being deliberated by the Supreme Court. Essentially, law makers in California are trying to pass a law that would make it a criminal act to sell violent video games to minors. The defender against this law is the Entertainment Software Association who claims that this law would be illegal under the free speech amendment. At this point, both sides have given their testimonies and the results will be decided upon between now and the Court’s recess in June.

I bring up this case because it highlights a feature of video games which separates them from other forms of media; interactivity. Part of the overarching concern over violent video games is the player is an active participant in the actions the character takes in the game. The short version is: if you do it in a game, you might do it in real life. There is research that argues both sides of this argument, but this is not the reason I bring up the interactive feature of  video games. I am highlighting this feature because of the possibilities that stem from it.

The possibilities of interactivity are the focus for my other questions this week. For example, presume that video games followed the principle of monkey see monkey do. By that logic if you make a video game that teaches kids to practice good oral hygine then those who play said game would also practice good oral hygine.  That is not how things are so let’s twist the idea another way with another example. Centuries ago, certain professions required one to obtain an apprenticeship to learn the trade such as carpentering, masonry, etc. This apprenticeship required one to practice and train under their mentor before they could “graduate”. In other words, the apprentice had to interact and practice in order to learn his trade instead of being considered a master by reading a few books. A more modern example, would be our production classes. In these classes, we have the opportunity to take the knowledge we gain in our theory class and apply it. We get to interact not just with the tools, but with the knowledge as well.

What I am trying to get at is the model of interactivity presented by video games has the potential to be exercised across the board. For the past decades, our culture has been one of passive consumption. Video games and their popularity, however, reflect our desire as a culture to become active producers and active participants in the world. And, no, I do not mean the way depicted by schell where you get points for everything. I mean a world where people not just have a perception of power, but truly have the capability to interact with various aspects of their lives.

Last week we discussed Obama’s presidential campaign and the website mybarackobama.com. Part of what drew people to the site was the ability to have a say. People were empowered. Whether that is true or not still today is up for debate, but at the very least a domino effect was started. Just look at the rise and exponential growth of the Tea Party, if that does not reflect people’s desire to be an active participant I don’t know what does.

Ultimately, the incorporation of interactivity holds a number of possibilities for the future.

Nov 07 2010

Video Games

Published by

1. Can video games be considered a form of media protected by free speech?

2. What other fields can make use of the technology utilized in video games?

3. Are video games a form of one, two, and or three-way communication and what could that mean for future game developments?

Nov 03 2010

Media Ethics, WikiLeaks, and Spongebob

Published by

Yes Spongebob. I could not help, but think about this particular episode after reading the chapter on Media Ethics. As dorky as it is it does touch on a number of issues from the chapter such as values, loyalty, and principles. Enjoy.

The Krabby Kronicle

The ethics of Spongebob aside, I would like to answer my questions for the week in relation to the information we have seen regarding Wikileaks and the ethics that fall around it.

In our theory book, it says that when confronting an ethical dilemma one should take into account one’s values. However, it fails to mention which values. Did it mean personal values or the values of society? I suppose that is up to the person in the dilemma. Regarding Wikileaks, based on the articles we have read and the videos we have watched, I can see three major values at work in their decision making process.

The first value and the most prominent is “the people have a right to know”.  I say this is the most prominent value because it provides the foundation for their entire operation. Since their inception, Wikileaks has made dangerous and powerful enemies around the world. Should the true structure of their organization be reveled, chances are they would be attacked on many fronts and dismantled as a result. With this threat looming over their heads, the producers for Wikileaks must value their mission above all else. Should someone turn the foundation would crack and the organization would collapse.

The threat of enemies to the site leads into the next prominent value of Wikileaks: secrecy. As we have stated in class, an irony of Wikileaks is that it promots transparency, yet their organization is opaque to the outside world. The some of the reasons for this opacity are stated in the above paragraph. Another reason I would like to add to this list is the nature of Wikileaks sources. To obtain such information as Wikileaks has, it is obvious that some of their sources are located in the very organizations who they have released information on. Even with the security the Wikileaks tries to provide, there is always a risk that sources can be discovered. A recent example is the source of the Afghanistan papers released earlier this year. The source of this information was discovered, ironically, by another hacker who states he had been in contact with the leaker.

The third value to mention and the most gray area of these values is that utilized to determine what to post on the site. I am not a Wikileaks user so I cannot say what values, if any, guide their decision making process. However, as Assange stated in his TED talk video, they do not have the man power to post everything they receive. Thus, there must be some system in place to decide what to post. Regardless of their system, it can be argued that this is where Wikileaks runs into most of their ethical dilemmas. As to the factors they take into account, we can only speculate as outsiders.

Oct 31 2010

Media Ethics

Published by

1. When the book talks about establishing values, which values does it mean? There are a variety of values and everyone carries different values.

2. If the ethical code of journalism requires journalists to be unbiased in their reporting, does that mean news channels like Fox News and MSNBC are not true producers of news?

3. Are media related ethical dilemmas really as far and few between as the book makes it out to be or do the various forms of media have varying amounts of gray areas?

Oct 27 2010

Who watches the Watchdogs?

Published by

For this week’s readings, the focus was the on the empowering of citizen’s as journalists and its effects. More specifically, the readings looked at what affects the empowerment of citizen journalism has, can, and may have on politics.

My first question of the week asked if the empowering of citizen journalist meant a draining of power from government institutions. Based on the readings for this week and our class discussions, I would say that if anything there has been a breaking of control that governments and their officials have on what information they want to get out into the public sphere. Some examples from class include the Republican National Convention’s attempt to make a site similar to mybarackobama.com and the story from Here Comes Everybody regarding the senator who expressed racist views at the birthday party of another political official.

In addition to these examples are the various news stories and youtube videos about politicians ranging from the extra audio from President Bush and Senator Kerry when they forgot their mikes were still attached to the Tea Party’s candidate Christine O’Donnell appearances on various MTV interviews. All of these examples illustrate the loosening of content control and the resulting possibilities to increase watchdog efforts on not only politicians, but on anyone involved with some form of publicity. The Brett Favre scandal comes to mind.

Unfortunately, and this is probably because this is a relatively new movement, what I have yet to see regarding the growth of citizen journalism and watchdoging is a power to help keep them in check. I have not heard of any group forming to act as a counter balance. Initially, it could be argued, the government was a counterbalance to citizen journalists since not all citizen journalists have the best intentions. However, with the drop in control the government has over certain areas I could see there being an imbalance at least temporarily. I suppose there is always crowdsourcing to make sure the facts are kept straight. There are numerous examples of it working across the internet so it is a matter of watching how crowdsourcing works in this context.

My final question for this week was related to the Shadow Government experiment in Iceland and how it might be replicated in a large country. Taking into account all of the articles this week, it looks like the Icelandic government is willingly giving power to the people; allowing them more direct input into new policies. I do not know enough about this and it is still too new to see how this will turn out. Also, presuming that it does work would it be possible to use a similar system in a country like the United States? A factor that I see being looked over by some people when they talk about using methods in other countries is how that country meshes. For example, the Scandinavian countries are relatively homoginistic culturally than say the United States. This can have a huge affect on how policies are received by a nation’s population. Either way, I am excited to see how this experiment plays out over the next few years. There is definitely potential in how they are using the increased connectedness of people.

Oct 24 2010

Citizen Journalism and the Government

Published by

1. With the empowerment of citizen journalism, does it equate to a shift in power away from traditional government institutions to the people?

2. Presuming citizen journalism does result in greater watch-dog efforts over the government, who would act as the watch-dog for the journalists? Would the people regulate themselves or become similar to how Wikipedia is given credibility?

3. How could the Shadow Government initiatives in Iceland be replicated on a larger scale? What is the point where having more people causes more harm than good?