Tutorial Tasks

This week’s blog requires us to perform a number of tasks, below are the tasks were required to do.

Sign an e-petition

I decided to sign a petition to save jobs at the Tallebudgera Active Recreation Centre.  I believe it is important that we provide locals with job opportunities and in this particular case the option for the current caterer who is local to the Gold Coast.  The tender in place would not allow the current caterer to reapply for the position and therefore would result in numerous locals losing their job.

What is Barak Obama up to today?

Today Barak Obama accepted the nomination for four more years as the American President and spoke about the critical choice the USA face in this election.  I have attached below, the link to his website where you can watch his acceptance speech that he made.

http://www.barackobama.com/

On this website you are able to sign up to it and use it as a way to contact Obama and put forward any suggestions you may have.

What are the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")?

The Australian Government plan to censor numerous websites that are on a blacklist of banned internet websites.  The blacklists includes websites that contain material such sexual violence and instructions on crime.  The list will be put together using a public complaint program, from censors put together by the government websites that will be provided by International Agencies.

For more information on the Government’s plan to censor the internet follow the link below.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/internet-censorship-plan-gets-the-green-light-20091215-ktzc.html

What place does censorship have in a democracy?

For me personally I don’t think there is any room for censorship within democracy.  An article I read (and have posted below) is written about a bill that have been entered into the New South Wales Upper House to make it illegal for a person to wear a face covering in public without any reasonable excuse.  This law could be otherwise known as the “burqa ban”.  Growing up in a very multicultural community, I don’t believe it is fair to take away people’s right to follow their religion.  I have always looked at Australia as being a country where you have the right to make your own choices as long as you abide by the laws and legislations.  In this case I don’t see any problem with someone wearing a burqa as part of their culture’s religion and think it is completely wrong to force people to go against what they know and not allow them to follow their religion.

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/intolerance-and-censorship-have-no-place-in-democracy/

What are the benefits of NBN?

The NBN is short for the National Broadband Network and is a telecommunication network that the NBN Co limited is constructing.  The NBN is a network that will allow everyone to have access to a hi-speed link between their premise and service provider, the service is projected to be completed by 2021.  At the start the NBN will just be used for providing hi speed internet and phone calls, but future benefits will include the possibility of TV being delivered over the NBN and a selection of more in-home services.

http://accan.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=413&Itemid=323

Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are.

Local Member: Stuart Robert.

State Member for Broadwater: Miss Verity Barton.

Federal Member: Karen Andrews.

Look up the Queensland or Australian Hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament

The last time Verity Barton spoke in parliament was on 31^th July when she spoke about the Penalties and Sentences and other Legislation Amendment Bill.

Below is a copy of her latest speech.

http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/Speeches/spk2012/Verity%20Barton%20spk%20Broadwater%202012_07_31_39.pdf#xml=http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/internetsearch/isysquery/11501668-6cdd-4b11-af98-4426d35f3319/8/hilite/

WikiLeaks....Good or Evil?

WikiLeaks is a non-profit organisation that publishes secret governmental information, leaks news that wouldn’t normally be released and media that have been handed to them by anonymous sources, wikileaks was founded in 2006 and released its first document in December of that year.  Since then it has been in the headlines for the release of many controversial government files that had been kept from the public including those on Guantanamo Bay, the Afghanistan war logs and the US embassy cables.  But is this website a force for good or evil? Well I guess that depends what side of the spectrum you are on.  If you are the American Government then of course you look at wikileaks as a force of evil but on the other hand if you are an ordinary citizen you have to wonder why the Government is withholding this information and would probably see it as a good thing.  Personally I am a bit on the fence about the whole thing.  On one hand it is annoying that these governments want you to vote for them but hide potentially very important facts but on the other hand I can’t help but think there may be a reason certain information is kept under wraps.  It’s a very interesting topic if you ask me!

Well that’s it from me this week.

Cheers,

Matty O

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/wikileaks

Survey Monkey

Our tutorial task this week was to create a survey about the increasing use of social media.  Out of 15 people that completed the survey that I created all of them use some form of social media.  Although it is only a small amount of people it has so far confirmed my thoughts that social media has taken the world by storm, not many people these days don’t use social media in one way or another.  The survey shows that almost 87% of people use it every single day of the week.  I know some people would think this is problem but personally I don’t see it that way considering every person that completed the survey use it as way to communicate with their friends and family.

I have posted the link to the survey I created below so if you have some spare time feel free to have a look at it!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/MySurvey_EditorFull.aspx?sm=EHBbJrMNCFhPjZgHclAyTYcKSIzRB%2b6kJZ14yh8dqX8%3d

Is the Internet taking away our ability to Communicate?

After watching Neil Postman’s critique on cyberspace one particular thing got me thinking is how much the internet is slowly allowing people not to communicate with others.  The interview with Neil was done in 1995 when the internet was at its beginning and spoke on how he had heard that in future years to come people would be able to shop online, bank online, and other things that would usually require people to go out and communicate not only with people they know but even just random people within the community.  His main worry was that this would signify the end to any community life.  Personally I don’t think  that it has that effect on me but there is no doubt that there are people whose ability to communicate with others inside or even outside their community has been and continues to become effected the more and more the internet and technology advances throughout time.  We are slowly being able to do almost everything through the use of the internet whether it be online banking, watching movies, buying groceries, things that would normally require us to go out into the community and communicate with the rest of society! 

I have posted the link to Neil Postman’s interview if you want to have a listen to his thoughts.

Cheers,

Matty O

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49rcVQ1vFAY

Cyber Punk History

Hey Guys,

Below is the link to a timeline I created about some key moments in the history of Cyberpunk.  It focuses more on when certain movies and books were released that were both popular and used "cyberpunk" elements.

Hope you guys enjoy it!

Cheers

Matty O

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/key-moments-in-cyberpunk-history--9

Is Myspace Old?

Once upon a time Myspace was the thing to have! Like Facebook today, everyone had a myspace, but is Myspace now considered as an old form of communication?  The internet was first used back in the 1960’s, with the first network being used in 1966.  The internet is still very young, so for me personally there is no way that Myspace could be consider old in terms of a way of communication however it could be considered old in terms of popularity.  These different social networking sites become old as new ones are created and grow in popularity.  Before Myspace it was MSN messenger which from what I could find was created in the late 90’s.  This was very popular until my early years of high school around 2003 which is about the time Myspace rose in popularity.  So overall personally I can’t say Myspace is and old in terms of communication when the internet itself is only  46yrs old but I think it can definitely be considered an old social networking forum now with the likes of Facebook and Twitter taking of the social networking world.   

What do you guys think??

Cheers,

Matty O

The Camera Advancement

In this week’s tutorial the subject of our 2 minute motion picture came up and we were talking about the different types of technology we can use as long as it was in High Definition.  The thing that I found interesting, and something that I actually didn’t realise, was that the cameras in the Iphone 4’s are, in fact HD cameras.  When you think about the first ever camera and how they have upgraded over the years its crazy how these days a HD camera can be found in something a very large percentage of people around the world use on a daily basis.  The first camera I remember having was one of those ones where you had to get the film developed and could had a 24 photo limit….many people not only didn’t have a HD camera back then but hardly anyone had mobile phones and now a days you can get both all in one for probably a cheaper price than it cost to buy both 15 years ago!  It is crazy just how much technology has advanced in just the 21 years that I have been alive and I can’t wait to see where it takes us in the 21 years!

The Facebook Revolution

Facebook is probably the main piece of new communication technology that I use today.  I joined the Facebook revolution just after I left high school I’m pretty sure.  I was never into the other social media Websites such as Myspace and Bebo even though pretty much everyone at school was because I just didn’t really see a point to it.  But when I left school I needed a way to keep in touch with everyone and Facebook had started to become more and more popular so I to, jumped on the bandwagon. The simple fact that it is free, easy to use, and is a great way to keep in contact with friends in other States or parts of the world is why I think Facebook has become so popular.  The downside to social media websites like Facebook has been in the news a bit over the last few years is things like cyber bullying and cyber stalking.  I think it is very important for parents to be watching over their kids shoulder (but still giving them some privacy) to make sure they are not speaking to people that they have only met with over the internet for the simple reason, you really have no idea if they are who they claim  to be.  Cyber bullying is another big issue and personally think it is great that kids shows like the Disney Channel promoting Anti-Cyber bullying and spreading the word.   Well that’s it from me until next week! 

Cheers,

Matty O

Advanced Communication

Here is a video I added for a bit of a laugh.  The general idea of it is to show just how advanced technology is becoming these days....whether it will get to this point or not I guess we will just have to wait and see!

Hope you like it!

Who is actually out there?

So week two of New Communications Technology is finished…shout out to Mr Ken Twohy for another awesome class! In the tutorial this week Twohy was telling as a story about “The Craigs List Murderer” and coincidently it was very relevant to my last blog and kind of back up my suspicions on the internet and how unsafe it is.  So I thought this would be a great topic for this blog considering it has links to my last entry.  So for those of you that do not know much about this story here is a little bit of background information.  “The Craiglist Murderer” got his name because of how the crime went down.  Basically Craiglist is a website similar to something like Gumtree.com where you can advertise pretty much anything you would like to sell…including yourself! So a guy by the name of Philip Markoff who was also an American Medical Student was the man dubbed “The Craiglist Murderer”.  Philip was charged with arm robbery and murder of a female escort in the American city of Massachusetts.  He would, using Craiglist, book a date with a high class escort and knowing they would have a lot of cash on them at the time would rob them of all their money.   Unfortunately one night the robbery went wrong and the female escort was found dead and after police investigation Philip Markoff was arrested and put behind bars…..scary stuff huh??!!  I thought this would be an awesome story to share with you guys just to prove how unsafe it really is out there on the World Wide Web!  So remember people be careful out there even if you are just using facebook or in fact you are selling something online….because you never know who your buyer might be!

Cheers,

Matty O

P.S If you want to look into the Craiglist murder in more detail I have added some thinks below!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Markoff

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/08/15/report-craigslist-killer-commits-suicide-jail-cell/

The Internet...How safe is it?

So my first tutorial for New Communications Technology is done and dusted!  I went into it not really knowing what to expect but I think I’m going to enjoy the course.  Some of the assessments are going to be challenging as they are tasks that I am not very familiar with, especially the 2 minute motion picture and as you can probably tell blogging is not one of my strong points.  Something that really caught my eye in this tutorial was how unsafe, in terms of keeping your private life private, the internet is becoming these days!  Mr Twohy (our tutor) had us googling ourselves to see what it would bring up and pretty much everyone in the class had their Facebook page brought up, someone had a Youtube clip they were tagged in, and pictures of one of our classmates formal were up on the internet.  Now I know these are all minor things and they all knew that they were out but it just shows how easy it has become to be able to track people down on the internet, once you are signed up to any kind of social media account your image is out there for the world to see.  My occupational goal in life is to be a sports journalist (hopefully a good one) or even go into the field of sports broadcasting.  One bad picture that a friend has tagged me in on Facebook or a video clip someone has posted on Youtube could so easily create a bad image for me, one that could easily be viewed by my employers or future employees.  Mr Twohy explained to us how hard it was to keep his picture off the internet and remain private and I must say he has done a very good job considering his occupation (Assistant Film Director)….there is only one picture of him on the internet!  So that’s what I found interesting from our first tutorial of New Communications Technology, stay tuned for an update on next week’s tutorial!

Cheers

Matty O

Welcome...

Well this is my first ever blog so don’t expect very much from me! So, let’s get into it.  My name’s Matt Oliphant, I am 21yrs old, born and raised in Brisbane but I am currently living on the Gold Coast with my girlfriend and another roommate.  I work at Wet ‘n’ Wild Water World and have been there for almost 2 years now.  It is a pretty cruisey job, I can’t complain about being outdoors and around some pretty cool water slides as an occupation.  I live and breathe sport, could sit down and watch pretty much any kind of sport but even better is playing them.  Rugby League and touch footy are my two main sports I play but love to get involved in all sports in general.  I am currently in my first semester of a Bachelor of Communications majoring In Journalism and Marketing.  With my big interest in sport I want to work myself into the field of sports journalism.  My ultimate goals would be to either write for a major newspaper as their sports journalist or more specifically write for the NRL (National Rugby League).   I have also thought about the possibly of T.V broadcasting for example on Fox Sports News in Sydney but will just have to wait and see where my career takes me! Well that’s me in a nutshell, and I look forward to discussing some of the aspects of New Communications Technology in future blogs.

Cheers,

Matty O.