Peepz Produsage - My Movie!!!

I haven't got the fuzziest idea about how to take my video from Xtranormal and put it on here....so i'll put the web address up and continue trying (sigh).

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/12465119/peepz-produsage 

Week 7 - Tute Task 1

One of the questions that came up in the lecture this week was ‘Is Wikipedia useful?’ I think it’s awesome. Granted I wouldn’t cite it as a source but I still use it as a base whenever I’m looking up something. If nothing else Wikipedia gives me at least a little background information of my topic, then I either use Google with a better idea on what I’m looking for or I just use the references at the bottom of the page. It tends to have a notorious rep at Uni for being a site the should be avoided at all costs but although it can be edited by anyone online, not all those people are out to screw with people. A lot of the information on there is quite factual and more often than not true. Double checking any information you find never hurts though. 

I have never edited Wikipedia, mostly because I just don’t care to, but I don’t see how hard it could be when there are little ‘edit’ links at the end of every paragraph.

Why does Facebook work? Well I’m not entirely sure, I don’t really use it that often and I can’t imagine spending all my free time on it, but I assume it would be because it’s a free and easy way to keep in touch with relatives and friends. I know I joined because my friends wanted to be able to organise events and times to hang out all together – it’s cheaper than calling or texting and virtually everyone has access to it. So I suppose that Facebook works because of what it offers, a way to communicate and show off easily. I know only recently my mother found her brother, whom she hasn’t seen in at least fifteen years, on there. That would not have been likely to happen without its services. 

For me to close my Facebook account, it would take a lot of time, patience, and effort. I’ve never been able to close down anything like it and frankly I’ve given up trying. 

Produsage, well I found out in in my tutorial class today that it’s entirely possible to make a huge profit in produsage. Someone in my class, sorry for the life of me I can’t remember who it was, said that a friend of theirs posted blogs for a living and easily made $20 000 for them. That would rely heavily on the amount of followers that they have, but to make that much money from expressing an opinion seems pretty surreal to me. 

Another topic that we spoke about today was whether or not citizen journalism was likely to over take real journalism. Personally I don’t think it’s likely to happen. News broadcasters have a ‘name’ so to speak; they’ve a legitimate background and professional people out there working. Whether or not they sensationalise their stories or not is hardly the case. However, in saying that, I don’t mean to discredit citizen journalists, I mean some of the worlds biggest stories have been captured on camera thanks to such people. Think of September 11, no one expected it and the only reason we have first hand footage is thanks to random people on the streets who were forced to witness it. 

While citizen journalism can be very real and hard core, sometimes more so that televised broadcasts, because it is broadcasted over the internet on blogs and ‘tweets’ its credibility is precarious and viewed rather sceptically (1). And why wouldn’t it be? Would you believe everything you read on the net? I certainly don’t. 

Further Reading

Carter, K. 2010, Citizen Journalism vs. Television Journalism, http://www.suite101.com/content/citizen-journalism-vs-television-journalism-a185487, updated 04/06/2010, date accessed 16/09/2011.

Hollywood, is it being outmanoeuvred by the internet???

Despite fighting many of the technological advancements through time, like TV and Video, Hollywood has still succeeded in taking the world by storm and using these advancements to ultimately expand their revenue. So why is it that they haven’t yet been able to breach the internet and its wide standing reach? Why haven’t they been able to adapt to this change like they have all the others and reach their targets with something that could clearly boost their sales immensely? 

The problem lies in piracy how hard it is to control over the internet. Why wait for a movie that could be obtained earlier and at a cheaper price? It’s the core issue that Hollywood knows they need to overcome. With the way things stand at the moment illegal downloading has the ability to completely cripple Hollywood. Sales on new movies would drop because people would already have a burnt copy of the movie long before it even reached Australian shores on DVD and Blue-ray. 

Sites like ZML.com show that people are paying to download these movies. The only problem is that it’s an illegal website. Ron Wheeler, the head of anti-piracy efforts at Fox Entertainment Group, says “we are more concerned about internet piracy than physical piracy, because controlling it is harder…” (1). If they did expand their reach to the internet they’d have to deal with more pirates than normal, and because of how hard they are to control the threat seems to be outweighing the benefit at the moment. 

However, there are those that can see the true potential that the internet has to offer, “It’s the great hope for new revenue for the movie business” says Thomas Lesinski, president of digital entertainment at Paramount Pictures (1).

I believe more than just possible for Hollywood to use the internet to their advantage, they just have to get over the fear of piracy and get their butts into gear before they’re run out of town anyway.

Further Reading

1.    The Economist, 2008, Hollywood and the internet: Coming soon, http://www.economist.com/node/10723360, updated 21/02/2008, date accessed 16/09/2011.

The Beginning of my 'movie'

Honestly I’m not sure where to start with this short movie or what to use to achieve it. I don’t even know what I’m going base it on. Communication – could I maybe just have a bunch of random characters talking to each other over something we’ve learnt about? Anyway I have ruled out using Window’s Movie Maker for this task, I used it once before and honestly I’m not going to put myself through that torture again. I think I’ll probably use Xtranormal for this, it’s something different and I don’t actually have to get people to act for me – not that anyone I know would. So it’s off to see what I can find…

Scavenger Hunt

1. Where was the first University established and in which year?

Cairo’s University, Al-Azhar, is what I found to be the oldest dating university in the world. Apparently it was founded in 969 AD - http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060729054252AAiUY0V

(Used Yahoo answers)

2.       2. What is Stephen Stockwell's band called and what does he play?  Can you name a couple of their songs?

The Black Assassins, keyboard and vocals, ‘Death Take Me Now’, ‘Drugs’ and ‘Azaria’. - http://www.myspace.com/theblackassassins

(Checked my saved music websites and happened across this one)

3.       3. What is the weight of the world’s biggest machine? How much did it cost to build?

Monster machine Liebherr T 282B, it’s an Earth mover and while it sure didn’t look like the biggest machine on the website it was the only one that gave me a price ^_^ - $3.5 million US - http://www.bukisa.com/articles/40463_worlds-largest-machines-ever-built

(Again Yahoo)

4.       4. Who is Justin Bieber's lawyer, and what is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact the lawyer?

Haven’t got a clue, I guess if you wanted to meet him the best way to go about it would be to assault Bieber himself. 

5.       5. What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Melbourne?

Umm, go with a group of friends, camp out and split petrol money???

6.       6. Who is Hatsune Miku? What company does she belong to? What is her birthday?

She’s a popular version of a singing robot called a Vocaloid in Japan, Crypton Future Media, and her ‘birthday’ is August 2007. Actually seems kind of cool ^_^ (Yahoo) - http://vocaloid.wikia.com/wiki/Crypton_Future_Media#Vocaloid2 

 

7.      7. Find a live webcam in Belarus. Find a place to stay in Antarctica.

Webcam - http://www.webcamgalore.com/EN/webcam/Belarus/Minsk/498.html

Hotels - http://www.selectlatinamerica.co.uk/destinations/antarctica/accommodation

(Yahoo – seriously if I can’t use Google what else am I going to use?

   8. What song was top of the Australian pop charts this week in 1991?

Everything I do I do it for you – Bryan Adams (Chart toppers)

http://chart-toppers.blogspot.com/2007/11/top-50-singles-of-1991.html

9. What type of car is used to make ‘Google Street View’?

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/06/01/take-a-look-at-the-vehicle-thats-taking-a-look-at-you/

10. Translate these questions into Spanish and then translate them back into English.

Spanish:

¿Dónde estaba la primera universidad establecida y en qué año?
¿Lo que se denomina banda de Stephen Stockwell y lo que él jugar? ¿Puede nombrar un par de sus canciones?
¿Cuál es el peso de la máquina más grande del mundo? ¿Cuánto cuesta para construir?
¿Quién es el abogado de Justin Bieber, y lo que es la mejor manera (más rápida, más fiable) ponerse en contacto con el abogado?
¿Cuál es la forma más barata de viajar desde la costa de oro a Melbourne?
¿Quién es Hatsune Miku? ¿Qué empresa ella pertenece a? ¿Cuál es su cumpleaños?
Encontrar una webcam vivo en Belarús. Encontrar un lugar para alojarse en la Antártida.
¿Qué canción era tope de las listas de pop australianas esta semana en 1991?
¿Qué tipo de coche se utiliza para hacer 'Google Street View'?
Traducir estas preguntas en español y, a continuación, se traducen en inglés.

English:

Where was the first University established and in which year?

What is Stephen Stockwell's band called and what does he play?  Can you name a couple of their songs?

What is the weight of the world’s biggest machine? How much did it cost to build?

Who is Justin Bieber's lawyer, and what is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact the lawyer?

What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Melbourne?

Who is Hatsune Miku? What company does she belong to? What is her birthday?

Find a live webcam in Belarus. Find a place to stay in Antarctica.

What song was top of the Australian pop charts this week in 1991?

What type of car is used to make ‘Google Street View’?

Translate these questions into Spanish and then translate them back into English.

http://www.spanishdict.com/translation