Going Global -

The Global Village is perhaps now a Global Metropolis?



"The Global Village is a world in which you ... have extreme concern with everybody elses business and much involvement in everybody elses life."

Marshall McCluhan

What makes us, us? Like a neighbour poking their head through the curtains, we now live our lives open to scrutiny and surveillance. No longer is there the requirement to gossip in the local village shop. Our very thoughts and movements are just a click away.

We can acknowledge the huge impact the Digital Revolution has had on our culture, politics and business, but what of the psychological affects? Have we lost our sense of reality, or have we altered and adapted?

Generation Web.

There is now a generation who only know a life online.

Far from the intimacy evoked by the term "Global Village", this spiralling community can be daunting, alienating and lonely.

So it has been established through the lectures of Digital Culture's impact on our lives, but where is Globilization taking us?

Perhaps one of the really frightening aspects of this module. We are alone......

Decode: Digital Design Sensations - V&A

I cannot live the Twitter version of my life any longer, so decided to venture out to the V&A to see the Decode Exhibition.

"Digital technologies are providing new tools for artists and designers. Innovative, often interactive, displays use generative software, animation and other responsive technologies to instill 'live' element into contemporary artworks. Some works exist in a state of perpetual evolution; others are altered by the behaviour of th spectator"

Decode

Previously in the year, our group was set this question: Can a computer critique art?

I think, at the time, I totally missed the point. Why use the yardstick to measure a new form of art? The whole nature of art is it's ability to develop and change. Surely digital art provides a platform to create things that have never been seen before; new visions of creativity?

I Am Mine? Disaggregation

If the web is a galaxy, you can see it is dominated by a handful of megabrands. But how do you target the individual and share the opportunity?

The future appears to be Disaggregation - dividing and singling out smaller sub-groups and specifically marketing to them. Social Networking and Search Engines have opened up the opportunity to target these specific groups.

Is the danger then that the individual becomes the marketing opportunity? The web is no longer a faceless community.

For all the talk of opportunity, is the real question that the megabrands still hold the real financial power? Crowdsourcing and Free Labour allow the megabrands to get the consumer to do their work without providing the financial reward to the creators.

I'd rather be Free?

The darker side of the web includes the ability to be followed in every walk of life.


Complacency has lead us to live in glass houses. I, for one, never question that every action I take on the web amounts to Free Labour. The information I search, the infomation I provide, the questions I ask are all monitored. Big Brother may not necessarily be monitoring me on CCTV 300 times a day, but I self-survey possibly that many times a day without realising.


Sleepwalking through my daily life, I give details of my location as I Tweet and status updates on my activities via Social Networking.


I provide databases with all the details through my indelible datatrail.



Looking at where this may take us, I happened upon the website foursquare.com. This new site allows you to apparently connect with people in your location. Through this, we provide specific details of our activities, targetted advertising and our daily movements. Are we now allowing ourselves to be stalked by Big Brother?



The web may have provided us with immortality, but is this really what we want? A drunken night you may choose to forget may permanently follow you for the next 30 years.

Perhaps freedom's veil is now so transparent, that we have nowhere to hide.

Who has the power?

DS Attacks! Cyberwarfare

In a previous post, I have mentioned Hacktivism and touched upon cyberwarfare.
http://viciousindigo.blogspot.com/2009/11/weapon-of-choice-who-controls-internet.html

There, I looked to question who controls the internet - an answer which still eludes me!



Virtual Revolution (Open Source Documentary). Cost of Free

Cyberwarfare is now even on the curriculum for US soldiers - the threat is acknowledged, and governments look to prevent it.

Is, however, the real threat not cyberwarfare but the threat to the individual? Personal information is currency.