And the year(s) come to an end...

I cannot believe it has been 4 years since I started this degree, or even 4 months since we started blogging!To be honest I was terrified to do this and had no faith in my blogging skills. Now that I'm done though I will admit that I really did enjoy it! I'm sure many of us will continue seeing things on the internet that will make us think "oh that would make a great blog idea", and perhaps some of us will even continue blogging (I'm currently undecided). I also want to thank everyone for this online community we have! It has been great hearing your comments and reading from your perspectives!


As this semester dies down, I know we are all working very hard on our final projects. For this class I have created another blog discussing how our engagement with social media sites has reshaped and created new expectations in many of our relationships! Most of you I'm sure will definitely be able to relate!

Another classmate of ours has chosen to do her final project by making an online magazine! titled "The Revolution Will Be Digital" (as seen to the left). This online magazine mimics a real magazine right down to the turning of pages, it is definitely a must see (and kinda makes me wish I had thought of it)! It was created using free software from Wix.com. The magazine discusses many debates that arise as we enter into this digital revolution, however I was unable to read the articles as I could not figure out how to zoom in, maybe you can though?

Enjoy and best of luck with your final projects!

And The Newest Superhero is....

THE INTERNET!

After reading this article from MSN I have now been informed on how the internet has saved at least 8 lives thus far! Some of the stories were very interesting. One man saved his own life thanks to an iPhone app and another woman was saved after being severely attacked by her horse. Luckily she was broadcasting her horse's birth via webcam and had people from as far as Berlin calling 911 on her behalf for assistance! This goes to show that everyone is truly connected via the internet so it is really no surprise that it is saving lives! Does anyone have interesting stories like these? I know I personally don't YET at least! The internet has however "saved my life" figuratively many times with school projects, cooking or almost with anything I wasn't sure how to do myself (as I'm sure it has for many of you as well).

It is truly incredible to think that without the internet those 8 people would've died. It is obvious we have one powerful tool at our hands! The Web is home to many new life changing resources. For me some fascinating ones are firstly: the Afrosphere and their fight together to preserve and enhance their culture; and secondly: digital activism where people are coming together via blogs, or social networking sites and creating change.

One of my favourite examples of these is the Jena 6 shocking story about racism that is still very much alive in a small town of Jena, Louisiana. In 2006-2007 6 young black males were being charged with attempted second degree murder and conspiracy after a white student was injured during a fight that had commenced after white students hung nooses in a tree. The amazing part for me was that although mainstream media did not cover this, the afrosphere came together and a protest in Jena was started during the boys court hearings. Here is the video from that day; it is truly unbelievable.


My favourite part about this video, is the sense of community and belonging between complete strangers. I think it is truly remarkable that people have come together from all over to fight for justice and to show those boys they are not alone! The internet is most definitely in these situations considered a superhero! It has affected our lives in so many ways. I would love to hear of other amazing stories you have come across like this one and share in this promotion of the internet! (although I do know it hasn't always been used for good things)

With the theme of the internet having a major impact on our lives I also want to direct you to my other blog where I'm continuing this topic by blogging about how our engagement with the internet, specifically social networking sites, has really had an impact on reshaping and creating new expectations in our relationships. It is something I think we (as active citizens) can all really relate to so please come check it out!

P.S To my fellow classmates: What was your favourite thing about this class? Or has there something new you've learned that has truly amazed you like Jena 6 has for me?

Canada's Biggest Movie Pirate is Now Behind Bars

CBC has just reported that Geremi Adam pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing high quality pirate copies of Hollywood films! He is the first Canadian jailed for breaking cinematic copyright, and he is sentence to two and a half months! What a precedent marker this will be!

According to the article:

"In 2007, the Conservative government amended copyright legislation. Under the new rules, making illegal movie recordings became a criminal offence punishable by six months in jail and a $25,000 fine."

Criminal offences are a big deal! I predict this will be an issue to debate. To monitor ones internet connection violates privacy laws. I did not personally realize that it was considered a "criminal" offence I assumed there was only a fine that went along with this offence. This shocks me because as Brand noted in the article, and I agree with him that it is about time Hollywood wakes up and jumps on board with the internet tools. Perhaps if it was available for us to purchases Hollywood movies online affordably we would start doing that? How would you like to see copyright laws change...if at all?

Be Stupid

Anti-advertisments have become increasingly popular since the world has become saturated with advertisments. It is a technique that shows the consumer that "hey we know you're not stupid, we aren't going to try some dumb persuasion trick on you". The company takes the route of being straight up and honest, admitting that you(the consumer) know their tricks and aren't passive consumers.

Diesel's Be Stupid Campaign is taking Anti-Ads to a new level, check their new philosophy:



The Diesel brand has made an entire promotional effort in calling their shoppers stupid. Is that very smart of them? From a young age we're always taught to be smart, yet it seems Diesel is suggesting what is "cool" is to "be stupid". This slogan can have many repercussions. As they have already done on their campaign website, they are encouraging consumers to send in video's of them "being stupid". I watched a long clip of a man trying to fit into his computer tower. The encouragement of these videos I feel is their main downfall in the campaign. If these are their consumers in the videos then they should be embarassed (at least from the video I saw, I encourage you to check it out). I'm filled with mixed thoughts about this Be Stupid campaign. On one hand, it seems like a clever idea, why not target the stupid people as more people may feel stupid than smart and their slogan and visuals do it in a brilliant way. However, on the other hand it's flat out insulting to some. It's a very bold and risky approach but I think my overall opinion on it is that it's very convincing! It sparks the fun, outgoing and dangerous side of us.

What I will completely agree with is their advertisment slogan "Sex Sells, unfortunately we sell jeans". This is a great use a play on words with advertising techniques and again reiterates that they know their consumers aren't passive.



One fellow blogger I found ranted about how annoying these campaign ads are, as they are posted all over New York City buses not to mention she feels "the advertisements remind consumers that smart people plan their budget, while stupid people overpay for Italian jeans" (Rachel L. Arbeit). With that said what are your thoughts on these Be Stupid ads? Any Diesels fans out there offended or encouraged by the ads? I'm interested in your thoughts as I have a love for advertising!

Criminals Until Proven Innocent?

Correction: I believe it's suppose to be Innocent Until Proven Guilty. Although this is right (you are innocent until proven guilty in the Canadian Law system), it is not the case when it comes to the school system at many universities (apparently it must say that in the fine print). It wasn't until learning about it in lecture that I realized we do not own the righs to our work submitted to Turnitin.com. Many university students face this frightening procedure every year, normally just in the begining years, as teachers assume that with large classes, someone will have copied or plagiarised someone else's work, whether it be their classmates or a theorist. Not only does this site claim ownership over the student's work, but is criminaling students based on software that picks out similarities between their work and others. This concept of having similar work as others seems unavoidable when writing about the same topics millions of others have written about as well. My point in this blog however is not to judge the operations of the system, rather to note thats its use criminalizing students.

An interesting side note is that Turnitin.com has too joined the blogosphere. In their most current blog post they are posting comments about accusations that have been made against them and providing corrections, (or excuses) to the remarks. I found that many of the comments they decided to emphasize on correcting are of common sense to the average person. Although I'm sure answering these questions would be easier than answering more important questions about the accuracy and quality of their software. Definitely check out their blog that it is fairly interesting...

Now back to my focal concern with Turnitin.com. I feel that univeristies need to realize how insulting this program is for their students. An application like this truly conveys the level of trust between professors and their students. As university bound students it's evident that we are hardworking, dedicated and honest students. We have given no reason to assumed otherwise. Especially in senior courses when prof's ask things to be "turn in" to Turnitin.com its complete discrimination. By doing this they are saying that perhaps the only way we made it to say 3rd year was by cheating and assume we would do so again. Not only is it degrading to us but for students like Mike Lazaridis (the founder of Research in Motion) his idea of the Blackberry could have been alot more difficult to claim ownership had the University of Waterloo, Ontario made him submit his paper about the Blackberry to Turnitin.com . I'm more curious now to hear your thoughts on Turnitin. Is it fair to us to assume we will cheat? Do you have more dislike for the software used? or for the fact that the University spends tons of our tuition dollars on it yearly because they assume were criminals? And lastly do you think universities will ever change this system?

I'll leave you with a video I found describing Turnitin.com from both the professor side and a student's side. Read the comments on the video as well provides even more opinions.
And I also want to leave with you a couple of blogs about other people's opinions on Turnitin.com that might help formulate your ideas. The first is a blog called DetentionSlip.org about two students in Virgina who filed a law suit against Turnitin.com (I'm sure they're not the first) and the second is the blog Far From a Shining Star who feel similar to the way I do.

Enjoy guys!