Lecture 9

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Lecture 8

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Essay support

I got this email from Linn Vizard yesterday

Just wondering if you have any tips for suggested reading/websites "are analogue forms of culture on a one way trip to extinction"? The library seems limited.

If you are thinking of doing this essay, the most straightforward way of approaching it is to look at some of the data on the decline of analogue media and areas where it has been or is being seriously challenged by digital equivalents. Examples of the former might be found in areas such as the music and the latter in, film, TV broadcasting and news media. You might then move on to consider the implications of a 'digital switchover' or areas of resistance to it. This will almost certainly involve a bit of digging around on the internet (or research, as we used to call it).

You might also want to consider the relative cost and benefits to the replacement of analogue by digital and some of the wider implications globally, such as the creation of the 'digital divide'.

I wouldn't be looking for too much orthodox academic literature in your bibliography, if only because the changes have been taking place so rapidly that academics have barely got around to addressing it systematically. What I would expect to see is some empirical data on the decline of analogue media and a clear indication that you understand the difference between the two (e.g. CDs and MP3s are both digital media even though their forms are quite different).

A few good sources for data or whitepapers on the topic might be the following (but you will need to do some searching):

The Times On-line
Wired
Ars Technica
BBC Technology

Hope this helps

Website of the week 6

This week's WOW is included because I thought it might be useful for any of you involved in those pesky group collaborative projects.

Etherpad is an on-line collaborative text editor in which up to 8 users can simultaneously participate in producing documents in real time. It was devised by a couple of ex-Google employees and is wonderful in its simplicity.



I've tried it and provided your internet connection is fast enough it works like a charm. You can save the documents on-line and then cut and paste them for use in whatever word processor you happen to favour. It doesn't handle images or other objects yet, but I suspect that's only a matter of time.

For those of you who might need a more 'whiteboard' type of approach which can handle drawing you might like to try Twiddla or you can check Etherpad out here

Anyway, I'm off to celebrate Rene Magritte's birthday with one or two of these:

Lecture 7

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This is a special collector's edition of Lecture 7 since it includes new, not previously shown slides featuring the work of 0100101110101101.org which I was unable to include in yesterday's lecture due to the failure of my internet connection at home. They are definitely worth checking out.

Oh, and I almost forgot, anyone dying put the 386DX track on their Xmas party mix-tape can download it here

Course Essays

As promised I've included this entry up so you can post any queries you might have regarding the essays for this course.

Use the 'Post comment' facility to raise any questions you might have about content, technique or approach to a given topic.

The list of titles is available for download from the course website here

Supporting documents including the NCAD essay cover sheet can be downloaded here

Remember the deadline for submission is 5th December

Not quite website of the week

Barack Obama's innovative weekly address to the cyberspace electorate is not really a website but it is highly indicative of the importance of digital culture in the modern age. It seems set to catch on and it's had over 800,000 hits since it was posted on Friday which is considerably more than his previous You Tube outings.

I would have respected him more if he had turned the comments on but could you imagine Biffo Cowan doing something like this?