Wikipedia vs. Encyclopedia

Wikipedia information is totally based on the readers. They are the creators of the information. Wikipedia ensures the users participation which reminds us the feature of web2.0. There is a definition in wikipedia about web2.0, “Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004, refers to a perceived second-generation of Web based communities and hosted services—such as social networking sites, wikis and folksonomies—that facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. O'Reilly Media titled a series of conferences around the phrase, and it has since become widely adopted.

Though the term suggests a new version of the Web, it does not refer to an update to Internet or World Wide Web technical specifications, but to changes in the ways the platform is used. According to Tim O'Reilly, Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.” All the information is open to all. People can edit it and put some updated information. People can ask about the authenticity of the information. But the information is not wrong, since the other editors verify the information carefully. According to the main site of wikipedia, “Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. With rare exceptions, its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet, simply by clicking the edit this page link. The name Wikipedia is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a type of collaborative website) and encyclopaedia. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference Web sites on the Internet.” On the contrary, the Britannica encyclopaedia information is verified by expert. As a consequence, authenticity of information is not questionable. There are some rules and regulation in wikipedia which clearly describe the roles of the developers. If we clearly take a look at the basic difference between them, we will find that both sites are devoted to their readers. So, in that sense, people get more liberty in wikipedia than that of Britannica. Another provocative offer of wikipedia is free service. For getting information, payment is not required. On the contrary, payment is required for the information of Britannica.

I have selected a topic about virtual reality from both sites. I have found very up to date information in the wikipedia. And the representation of the information is user friendly. Consequently, I do not face any problem when I retrieve data. The Britannica provides a series of information as a list. The main problem, as I mention before, is that all items in the Britannica are not free. We have to pay money for getting the information. The content in both sites are alike. So for getting the same quality information, I am not eager to pay. Some associate links are available to find out more information about the topic in the Britannica. The wikipedia is really a revolution in the sense of free flow of information.

Class exercise

Artport and Rhizome

Artport, an online gallery space to commission net art project, is a webportal of the Whitney Museum for net arts and digital arts. The functionality of Rhizome.org is quite alike Artport. They provide online platform for the contemporary media community. They support creation, discussion, presentation of contemporary arts by using new technologies in a considerable way.

Tap, 2002

Tap is treated as a virtual dance school for animated characters which exist on the Internet and can be downloaded to individual’s Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and desktops. According to the tap website, “Users can choose animated dancers (a male or female) at the Tap website. The dancer takes on a life of its own, practicing, learning from other dancers, and giving recitals. Users do not have to be present during the lessons--the animated characters can be "dropped off" and left to practice for an unlimited time. Dancers can practice at home, as a screen saver on the user's desktop.” The animated figures create individual dance steps which produce new dance steps. So by using the technology, new dancing styles are being evolved. The interesting thing is that the digital artefact is really good for the people who want to learn dancing, and it can be good as screen saver. The artefact is a good example of how arts are interacting with new technology. After creating a dance on your PDA using the Tap application, you can save your dances and share them with others. The web address of TAP: http://www.diacenter.org/buckhouse/.

Implementation

The idea of the Implementation novel is totally new to me although I am familiar with remix art. I could not think that a novel could be written in this ways. But I think this idea was adopted from the movement of Dadaism even though the motto of the implementation novel is different than that of Dadaism. Before we go into details, we have to take a look into the definition of implementation novel. According to its website, “Implementation is a novel about psychological warfare, American imperialism, sex, terror, identity, and the idea of place, a project that borrows from the traditions of net. art, mail art, sticker art, conceptual art, Situationist Theater, serial fiction, and guerrilla viral marketing.” Like the web2.0 platform, the user is the main creator of the narratives that the novel belongs to. And the people are the distributor of the novel. So the novel ensures the user participation in every case. The pictures, which are used in the novel, are as alike as the digital art, composition of several arts in one place.

ARG

This game is called ARG (Alternate Reality Game). This is true that we can ague whether it is game or not. According to Wired website, “In it, widely distributed players bring together to find and answer thousands of ringing pay phones all across the United States and provide correct answers to recorded questions. When all the answers have been supplied, the latest episode in an internet-based War of the Worlds-esque radio serial is unlocked and made available to its rabid fans.” The game is a way to publicity halo game. I did not find a step by step description of how to play the game. But a row idea is given into Wikipedia. According to it, “The ilovebees.com website first gained public attention when jars of honey were received by members of the Alternate Reality Game community. The jars contained jumbled letters. When cleaned and assembled, the letters spelled out I LOVE BEES. Later, the game would gain its entry into public fervour with the URL's appearance at the end of theatrical trailers for the Halo2 game on Xbox. From the blurring of media and mystery, it became clear that this was an Alternate Reality Game. Eager to unravel the mystery of the site's hacking, interested internet users began to explore more information, mostly by trial and error.

Dana, the webmaster

Dana, the sites webmaster, had created a weblog stating that something had gone wrong with her website, and the site itself had been hacked. In later entries she reported that her attempts to fix it were in vain, and asked for help.

Early players tried emailing Dana, exploring the ilovebees.com website for hidden data, treating the corrupted data on ilovebees.com as encrypted files and attempting to decrypt them, and any other ways players could think of to attempt to gain more hidden information from the site.”

Youtube.com, my favorite site

I do not like the social based software. Rather I like social networking based site where I can meet my virtual community. But I do not have any account in myspace.com because Asian people like hi5.com, a south Asian community based website. I have an account there, and I have around 24 friends with whom I share my everyday experience. My favorite site is youtube.com. I like it very much because whenever I need to listen music, I just type the name of the song or the musician; the site brings it within a second. Youtube.com is my friend basically. I spend around 90 percent of my leisure time with it. As well as I can upload videos according to my choice here. As a consequence, the site sounds to me a real folksonomy that ensures my participation.

My Cyber world

Cyberculture is a very common word in our contemporary social condition. What is cyberculture? According to wikipedia, “Cyberculture is the culture that has emerged, or is emerging, from the use of computers for communication, entertainment and business.” This is really tough to define the boundaries of the cyber culture. Basically there are no boundaries or constrains in the cyber life. People get the true independent life, in the cyberspace, as they want to. The cyberspace is emerged as a virtual place where men and computers interact. Cyberculture is a result of the advanced scientific invention, but many third world countries are deprived of it because they do not have well infrastructures and financial ability to bring the service into their normal lives. Before I came to Sweden, I was a student of software engineering. Consequently, I was familiar with the Internet. But I was not a good user of it as I am right now. And the term “Cyberculture” was an unknown word to me. I heard sometime from some of my friends about chatting. Basically, my country was not connected with the information super high way at that time. As a consequence, we were not progressive enough in information technology. After coming to Sweden, I have been habituated with the Internet. Now, I can not believe my existence without the net. Why do I rely drastically on the Internet? In order to get information, mental recreation, making friendship, I use the Internet. What will happen if I move somewhere where the Internet is unavailable? Obviously, I will die then. Now I believe that the net has brought an alternative way of living into my everyday life.

Identity is very crucial factor in our real life. On the contrary, identity is very immaterial in the virtual life. When I login into the virtual world, I choose a nick according to my mental mode. Sometime I select male name, and sometime I take a female name for fun. After logging in into the chat room, I am frequently asked whether I am a male or female. As I mention before, some times I mimic as a female. And within a short time, the male characters start showing their interest to talk to me. How funny situation it is! Sometime, the male characters propose me to be my lovers. But some people are really clever. They can easily find out that I am not a female at all. In some situations, to hide identity is a really tough work. Jay Bolter, the writer of Cyberculture, writes that people, in the cyberspace, can not hide identity.

My favourite chatting room is Bangla 2000, where only Bangladeshi people chat. I started going there just to avoid loneliness. I am in Sweden, and my friends and relatives are not around me. So I am really alone in Sweden. Within a short time, I have made lots of net friends. I like to define them as net friends because physically I have not met them, and there is no way to do that because different friends live in different countries. But we have close friendship. If I am sad, they will try to inspire me to do something constructive. Sometime some of my net friends call me over phone. My community some times try to come out from the virtual world for being the society of the real world. But in most of the cases this is not possible because I do not want to meet them in the real world.

Some times I go to yahoo or msn chat room. The interesting thing is nobody waits for me there. And I do not wait for anyone as well. I am free from the social norms. Wherever I want to go, I can go. In the real world, Bangladeshi community is very introverted; especially girls do not talk to unknown people. But in cyber space, they behave differently. They are really aggressive in making friendship. Basically their confidential aspiration is emerged through the net world, and I get the authenticity of Virginia wolf’s dialogue, “Freedom, just for a night.”

To sum up, the cyber space is a different world where the rules and regulations of our everyday life are outdated. Some times I think that is it an emotionless world? But someone, in my mind, answers that no, this is a new way of life.

First day in my blog

Today is my first day in the blogger.com.