Cross-Cultural Blog

Today, students from Stanford University, USA, and Uppsala University, Sweden, came together for a video conference to discuss speeches about global issues, including

• Nelson Mandela - statement following his release from Pollsmoor Prison in 1990
  
• Meryl Streep - speaking about international women's rights in 2006
  
• Bono - address at the 54th National prayer breakfast in 2006
  
• Barack Obama - his famous "Perfect Union" speech that addresses race in America, 2008
  
• Al Gore - his generational challenge to Re-power America in 2008
  
• George W. Bush - his final speech as President in January 2009

Together, the students wrestled with analyzing the rhetorical strategies utilized in these speeches, with special attention to Doxa -- or the cultural values underlying the oratory.

We invite you to leave a reflection on this cross-cultural encounter as a comment to this entry. In particular, you might answer some of the following questions:

• What did you think of today's activity?
  
• What did you learn about cross-cultural rhetoric or communication from this activity?
  
• How will your experience in the video conference today enrich your own research project or approach to oral rhetoric and presentation?
  
• How did you create an online group identity? How was this technologically-mediated identity different from one that you might create with a face-to-face interaction?

Continue reading "Speeches for Global Leadership: Video Conference Reflections" »

Posted by Christine Alfano at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (39) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

I’m working on a research project centered on the evolution of online gaming. As part of my research I’ve been spending time playing social games with my friends and online. And I have recently come across a new phenomenon: the win-at-all-costs gamer. These are people who don’t play by the rules and will use any exploitative measures they can come up with to give themselves an unfair advantage.
Halo 3, named best multiplayer game of they year in 2007 and most innovative game of the year 2007,2008 by Edge Magazine because of its stellar us of the online platform, is a gathering place for all sorts of gamers and you can find virtually every gaming demographic there is playing this game online. One of the best things about the game is that you and three of your friends, sitting in the same room, can venture online together and test your virtual might. These players need only sign in as “guests” on your Xbox 360 and presto, you’re playing together online.

Continue reading "Can't We All Just Get Along?" »

Posted by at 08:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

Over the past few years, the popularity of blogging has grown dramatically. Since 2002, the number of blogs has grown to over 180 million, with over 90 million daily readers. Due to the popularity of this rising trend, I decided to research blogging. However, when I started looking up the topic, I noticed that the question of why people do it has never been fully addressed. This is the question I am researching.

During the past few weeks, I have been viewing blogs, reading articles, and conducting interviews. Throughout all of this research, the source that I have found the most interesting, mainly since it provided a new way of viewing blogging, is a journal article written for the American Behavioral Scientist titled "The Psychology of Blogging: You, Me, and Everyone in Between." In the article the authors present their views on blogging and why people may do it.

Continue reading "Psychology of blogging" »

Posted by at 03:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

Digital Rights Management are a group of technologies and means in which corporate software companies impose restrictions on to the end user (the user of the software) by extending the intellectual property rights of the owners. These technologies are taking away the users rights, effectively controlling the end user as to what they can do to their purchased property. Thus, in researching the methods by which these corporate software companies attempt at stealing away users rights, I have created a survey to get a sense of the awareness people have towards DRM and its issues.

There are six questions in the survey:
1. Have you heard of DRM?
2. Do you know what DRM is and what does DRM stand for?
3. What is the use of the End User License Agreement *EULA)?
4. Have you read the EULA in its entirety?
5. Have you heard of or do you use open source software?
6. If yes, please state two examples of open source software.

Continue reading "DRM survey at Stanford suggests students lack awarness of DRM issues " »

Posted by at 02:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

The New Yorker published a cartoon that summarized digital life in 1993. “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” Intrigued by this cartoon, I decided to research on its validity in the present and concluded to prove that online anonymity is never anonymous. Most of my research consisted of technological issues such as creating programs to secure online anonymity and tracing IP address to locate users. However, I came across an article from CNET.com that introduced a way to identify online users without relying on technological instruments. What? I never expected that a posted text/comment would allow professionals to identity some personal information about users. So how is this possible?

Continue reading "Online Anonymity's Failure to Remain Anonymous: Ways to Identify Users' Information Through A Non-Technological Technique" »

Posted by at 02:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

Technology and inter-connectivity today permeates all aspects of our lives.
I would like to take a closer look at how the internet is revolutionizing communication of the digital arts: changing the way people perceive, experience and share art and even the nature of art itself.

While skimming around the web doing preliminary research, I was surprised to find some still-active debates on whether or not digital art was considered “real” art. Most of the threads were outdated but in some cases, the discussion was relevant enough to revive interest as the last post on the list was just this past weekend.

(http://www.mybestcanvas.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37)

For this, I found that the overwhelming majority were supportive of digital art as a legitimate new art form. This was not surprising; they were after all, artists themselves who dabbled quite a bit with painter-based programs so it’s only to defend digital art’s viability as a mixed media.

Continue reading "Adventures of Online Art Communities. Part One." »

Posted by at 08:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

These days, people are finding accessing the internet easier with better and more efficient technology. As we witness an evolution in graphics and computer interfaces, which allows computer use to be more enjoyable, it is also evident that games designed for internet play are becoming more prevalent. Specifically, MMORPGs, or massively multiplayer online role-playing games, have begun their assent on the industrial ladder to become a popular mainstream activity. As a researcher, student, and player of these types of games, I want to know what propelled MMORPG to a multi-billion dollar industry within just a couple of years at the consumer level. In other words, what are the motivations for playing?

Continue reading "MMORPGs: The New Training Wheels" »

Posted by at 07:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

Viacom, a media giant which is the home of many television companies including MTV and Comedy Central, sued YouTube for failing to regulate more than 150,000 unauthorized Viacom Video clips viewed for 1.5 billion times.

YouTube has grown continuously and the online video site is now ranked the number four web site in the world -behind only Yahoo, MSN and Google itself according to Internet traffic data of Alexa. YouTube is a representative platform of user created contents (UCCs), which provides software which enables users to create their own videos without professional knowledge. Coincided with increased broadband availability, increased quality of consumer technology devices for videos, as well as with the shift of information and communication technology (ICT) skills to younger age groups who are less hesitant to reveal personal information on-line, such a UCC website could grow rapidly and dramatically. However, Academics and Media Executives estimate that thirty to seventy percent of YouTube videos are unauthorized copyrighted materials such as music videos or full television programs. The astoundingly high potential of copyright infringements within YouTube suggests the great anger of Viacom over YouTube; unauthorized YouTube video clips have stolen their viewers!

As the lawsuit mentioned in the beginning showed, Viacom presents very stubborn attitude on unauthorized materials trying to “rip down” any of their original materials on YouTube. But is mere “ripping down” an appropriate reaction on such video clips? Will not there be more reasons that some people prefer watching television programs on YouTube to watching them on regular television, than just because it is free on YouTube? Based on this idea, I am researching on the solution for the future video industry which provides the merits of YouTube and compensates the producers simultaneously. And I will introduce some models of websites that also provides television programs but protecting copyrights. Yet, I focused on websites ran by television companies to find out the desired remuneration of television companies.

Continue reading "Television or YouTube?: Forecasting the Future Balance of Television and User-Leaded Web Media, YouTube" »

Posted by at 05:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

In an age when virtually any information is available online in an instant through Google and Wikipedia, higher education is often stuck in the proprietary, campus-centered models of the past. In the past decade, however, top universities have begun to share their course materials (lectures, notes, homework assignments, and more) with the public over the internet. As a researcher and as a student of one such prestigious university, I want to know how the recent trend of open course materials will affect university education and society in general.

I began my research with the same perception that most people have: that online courses are for people with technical skills and interests. After all, MIT was the university that pioneered OpenCourseWare, and MIT is world-renowned for its Computer Science and engineering classes. Even at Stanford, a research university that also focuses on the liberal arts, 59 of the 62 paid online SCPD courses are offered by the School of Engineering. The other three are from Biomedical Informatics and Statistics. After some searching, however, one can discover a varied selection of course materials in non-technical subjects.

Continue reading "Learning to Share" »

Posted by at 02:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

Journalism is defined by Merriam-Webster.com as: the collection and editing of news for presentation through the media; an academic study concerned with the collection and editing of news or the management of a news medium. Like many other terms, with the passage of time and the advances that come with technology, this definition is changing. Editing, management, and academic study are aspects of journalism that belong solely to the media. However, the collection and presentation portion of that definition has extended beyond the grasp of the “Newspaper Tycoons” of old to the camcorder-clad-suburban-American. This modern reporter has no training or experience, he just happens to be in the right place at the right time and have access to basic technology. He is known as the Citizen Journalist.

It seems to be a growing phenomenon, this Citizen Journalism. I wondered how it came about. Is it a solution to the problem of Journalism needing to catch up with the times, or is it a symptom of that problem? Is it something that is going to last, or a fad that will pass? So I began researching to discover some answers.

Continue reading "iReport a Solution" »

Posted by at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

Is crime in a virtual world comparable to crime in the real world? Is it worse?

Way back in April of 2005, I read an article in PC Gamer magazine that changed my perspective on the social dynamics in massively multiplayer, online, role-playing games (MMORPGs). The take-down of the Ubiqua Seraph Corporation by the Guilding Hand Social Club in EVE-Online was one of the first heavily publicized acts of crime in a virtual world. To lose $16,000 to a bank robber or a con artist would be significant in the real world, but to lose $16,000 to a criminal in a video game is outrageous. That sum was surpassed in 2006, when a user named Danatara Rast founded the EVE Investment Bank (EIB). Within a short period, the EIB had secured the funds of hundreds of players and many large corporations. One day, Danatara revealed the bank was a scam by pocketing the holdings of the bank and making off with roughly 700 billion ISK, well over $100,000 in real-world currency.

Continue reading "Guilds and Gangs" »

Posted by at 08:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

I am currently researching on the “Minerva” syndrome that has happened since a couple of months ago. “Minerva” has posted about 200 articles predicting the current economic situation on a Korean website, called Daum Agora. His articles have become so famous among the users of the website that some even called him “the Internet economic president.” I want to find the relationship between this syndrome and the government’s loss of credibility.

Two events mainly contributed to raise “Minerva” up to the position of “the online economic president.” First, in August 2008, Korea Development Bank, run by the government, tried to purchase Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., while “Minerva” warned that Lehman is in danger of bankruptcy. Lehman went into bankruptcy at last, and “Minerva” turned out to be correct.

Continue reading "The "Minerva" Syndrome" »

Posted by at 08:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

According to recent reports, online dating sites have reached record numbers in the recent months than ever before. .As the online dating industry continues to expand not just in the United States, but internationally, I am left to question why this phenomenon is occurring. What is motivating people to meet for the purpose of dating in a place that has been coined so unsafe, where deception is only a step away, where you can't even physically see a person or speak to them? Furthermore, why are people willing to pay for these types of services?

While doing research on this topic in the library at Stanford, I came across a book entitled Cyberspace Romance: The Psychology of Online Relationships by Monica Whitty and Adrian Carr. What set this source apart from many articles I had found online was that it didn't just simply pour out statistics, but it gave foundation, background, and a process as to how online dating relationships worked. Whitty and Carr first defined what a relationship was and how these paralleled to how cyberspace relationships function, spanning from virtual reality relationships to video game relationships.

In the 7th chapter of their book, Whitty and Carr focus on Online Dating and the motivations for using these online dating networks. They conducted their research using those online matchmaking users registered on Australia's largest online dating site, giving a worldwide view of the situation in question. Included in the listed motivations were reasons that I, personally expected, such as being too shy or reserved, or simply for fun (to find casual sex). But there were other responses that surprised me, like how 57% of the sample group mentioned using online dating as a substitute for the club scene because they had gotten tired of these places, or how 67% "felt they had no other option (because of their work situations, family commitments, dislike for other venues)." What caught me off guard with this statistic was how strong the statement was. I had never looked at online dating sites as an only or last resort, but rather as a simple alternative, another option to other forms of meeting people, but the fact that more than half of the sample felt this way was astounding. I had not even thought of people that were so busy with work to go out using this as a convenient means to find people around them. Maybe this feeling of desperation is what is adding to the success of this industry.

Continue reading "Shopping for Love?" »

Posted by at 01:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

I like aligning with my favourites. I only buy Macs, rarely purchase a non-Nintendo video game, and only use Facebook. Or rather, only used Facebook. After exploring some alternatives, I might have found a new web-hangout: Mixi (ミクシィ) the Japanese-specific social network.

Is Mixi as active and linked as Facebook? Probably not. But it really is a breath of fresh air.

Continue reading "ミクシィにミクスする" »

Posted by at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This week, the students in my New Technologies of Identity class will begin their research blogging assignment.

The course itself is concerned with the way that we construct our identities differently in an online environment -- so writing on this blog gives us a great opportunity to test out how our voice as writers is transformed by the genre of blogging. Since the students have already written a proposal about their topic and given a presentation, this is a fresh medium for them to explore.

Continue reading "Technology & Identity Research Blogging: Winter 2009" »

Posted by Christine Alfano at 08:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)