Research Plan

1. What features will a site that educates childen against cybercrime have to embody in order to be effective?

2. With more and more younger children surfing the web they should be educated about the threats in cyberspace. We all know that when parents lecture children all they hear is, "blah blah blah." It is proven that children are more likely to respond to information given to them by friends. I think with protection software children just want to get past that to see what is really out there and maybe they will go to a friends house to explore the internet, they always find a way. So I don't feel restriction is the answer it is education on the subject. But how would a site get this information across to them?

All the sites that I have found are for parents. These sites give them tips on how to protect their children, with bullet points and lots of boring articles, that kids would not waste time reading. Alot of the time parents don't talk to their children about the threats, they are not monitoring or don't have the time. There is no way that a parent can be there 24 hours a day, so... children need to be aware. There is no internet site for children to go and educate themselves and there should be!

3. First, I need to find out what ways are effective in relaying information to children. Who do they listen to? What type of site appeals to them? The sites that are already out there, I would like to rate in effectiveness.

Blog 5

Well I was originally going to write about internet crime such as online streaming and dl-ing of movies, tv shows and music. I didn't have a good idea of what I wanted to get across with this topic. So when I met with prof. Chandler we discussed this topic and began talking about other internet crimes and other related topics. Then we started talking about protecting children on the internet. The children who are using the internet are getting younger and younger! Although parents try to protect thier children with lectures and maybe protection software, many parents are not tapped into what thier children are really doing on the internet. Therefore, children have to become responsible for thier actions on the internet and understand the dangers that they are nieve to. I would like to develop a site that is targeted towards kids so they can be educated about the dangers, in a fun and cosmetically appealing fashion. All the sites that I have found are solely geared towards parents and they are filled with useful information and lots of bullet points... this is a great resource but parents can not watch over thier children 24 hours a day.`There is only so much they can do, children must be aware. Actually I just came across a site for children but it is soley information in paragraph form, so boring I didn't want to read it I can imagine neither would a kid. So I don't know exactly how I am going to do it, but I am, I want to educate but in a fun way that would get the information across to kids without being preachy. I feel that this will be a challenge but I want to make a difference...so I'm up for it.

Here is the feedback that my fellow students had for me last class on my topic:

I am thinking about writing about internet crime. I am not sure if I should narrow this topic down because it is very broad. If I was going to narrow this topic, I was thinking about focusing on the steaming and downloading of movies, television programs and music. What kind of crime is this? How are people caught? What kind of punishment is given for these types of crimes? Is it am invasion of privacy if it is being monitored?


I want to find out what kind of people are doing this… is it only the younger generation? Do you participate in this practice?

I know downloading music is a big issue. I do not know if this of any help, but you should check out imeem.com, the website is like a myspace where people put selections of music. I believe some of the record companies have downgraded the listening to music by a 30-second preview, instead of the full version of a song. In the comment section, people get annoyed. Under the song, it will usually say the author of this song has not given permission. Jennifer

If you’re going down the media downloading route, you can talk about how Napster was the first publicized site to allow this. You can tie this into the reading with, I think the first article that talked about the idea of internet regulation. Ask questions like is it okay to download for personal use but not public use that will make you money and not the author, like in the reading about the Harry Potter story. -Ricky

I like this topic. I have a cousin whose classmate was visited by the police and possible arrested in school for downloading something on Napster. I think that person was fined a large sum of money. I am not too sure how precise my cousin is with the details. You have to look into the news articles online to see if people really are arrested for piracy. I am sure the police came and fined the student for the downloads. I am not sure how many songs or movies the student downloaded, if that even matters. I would like to know how these people are caught. Your topic is very interesting. Please elaborate on it more. – Angela C.

blog 4 - McCloud and Jenkins

In McCloud's "The Vocabulary of Comics" he starts out by showing a picture of a pipe and tells you that it isn't a pipe. At first I was like huh... it is a pipe. But as I kept reading I began to understand what he meant by that. It is not a pipe it is a picture of a pipe, a representation of a pipe, because we know what a pipe looks like and therefore we interperate the picture as a pipe, But its not an actual pipe...wow. ok. So then he goes on to show you other examples of what he means and he explains that the word "icon" is a better choice then symbol or becuase icon means "picture images designed to actually resemble their subjects. Then McCloud goes on to explain the levels of abstractness in icons. He begins to state the humans see themselves in everthing because we are self centered. The more simple a drawing of a face is the more we can picture ourselves in it, like cartoons. :) or even that icon. I know you just pictured yourself smiling in your head, hehe. What I thought was really interesting was when the cartoon guy shows a drawing of himself that is very vivid and asks if you would listen to him if he looked like that? It's funny cause I now thinking about it I think that I would have been more concentrated on the features and details in the second figure and it might have hindered his message to me. The simpler figure is cute and you don't judge it as much because it is not realistic enough, it is easy to brush it's appearance to the side. There are icons everywhere on the internet eventhough most of the time we don't realize they are there because we are oblivious to them. People who design icons must know (technically) how to get the user to unconciously see the icons representation they want. I'm assuming alot of thought goes into this process, this is something that I never thought about or realized was happening. Now when I will look at icons on the internet or in life, I will question it, and question if I see myself as a representation in it.

Jenkin's essay discusses Fan Fiction and it's controversy as negative or positive. Jenkin's starts by giving a general description of what the main idea is. The story of home schooled Heather explains how she created an online journal for children to write about The Hogwarts school. It is interactive were children can write fiction, but alot of the stories are based on personal issues, at least thats what it seemed to me.

Topic Brainstorming

Still thinking about internet crime. I have been doing some research on it and there is so much information. There are so many internet crimes that I am not sure if I should maybe just concentrate on one aspect. I think streaming movies and tv shows is an interesting topic. Why is it that tv channels can stream tv shows on the internet on thier own sites but when someone else posts it is a crime? and also how do you get caught? Should it be a crime for the gov to monitor what goes on in the internet and punish people for it, isn't that an invasion of privacy? How long do people go to jail for crimes on the internet? There are so many questions. I would also like to talk to people and see who is commiting these types of crimes. young people only or older people, is my grandmother doing it?....well if she knew how to use the computer would she.

Blog 3

Glister's "Digital Literacy" is about past contributions in print and how they developed into the new technology. As an example mail to e-mail. Kinda like remediation, uses an older concept and making it appealing for technology. He goes on to say that digital networks support the power of print and it is intertwined with the internet's print. Digital Literacy is defined as the ability to inderstand and use information in multiple formats from a range of sorces when it is presented via computer. Glister also writes about digital exploration and how there are no consiquences. The Real world vs. digital world and how both socialize the user for different practices.

In Rhiengold's essay "Smart Mobs" he expains what smart mobs are and gives examples of some of this activity. He starts by explaining how the political leader Estrada was forced out of power through the actions of mass text messaging. "Generation text" was born from this event. I thought it was interested when the fall of Estrada was described as "in sense one might think of the crowd not as an effect of technology but as a kind of technology itself" As a crowd/community/network people can reach across social spaces that location can divide. I thought that the dating through text in Tokyo was interesting and might be something that we will eventually see in the united states one day. Looking up smart mob activity was interesting because we got to see events that have happened recently.

I think that my interest is still based on crime on the internet. I don't know much about it but I would like to find out more on this topic. I think that I could find some interesting stories related to crime on the net.

Blog 2

Heim's article is about defining "virtual reality". He goes into detail on how the definition of the word has changed and now it has a very loose meaning, which describes anything to do with computers. He tries to clarify the meaning and states that VR is a technology and not a nebulous idea. He then speaks about the three I's: Immersion, Interactivity, and Information Intensity. Immersion is feeling like you are there, Interactivity is quick perspective changes to feel like you are there, Information Intensity is Vr is a form of intelligent behavior. Telepressence: occupying the same virtual space through technological communications, ie. telephone. Then Heim goes into detail describing VR technologies such as helmets, networks and simulators, and the cave. Lastly he focuses on the steps in technology that were taken in order to develop the VR systems that are avalible now.

In Benjamin Woolley’s article “Cyberspace” Woolley attempts to give meaning to the term Cyberspace. He does not want to give the reader a etymological meaning of the word. Instead, he embarks on a study of the word and its evolvement in society.
Marshall McLuhan suggests that technology is an extension of our bodies. Woolley seems to agree with McLuhan because he feels that our society is physically and emotionally linked to technology, especially cyberspace. Woolley then goes into the history of the internet and how it was developed. Viruses were also a topic of discussion because future viruses could destruct the internet.
Network exchange information across distances and this network created a global community. Woolley seems to believe that cyberspace is the most powerful form of communication. Without cyberspace society would collapse because people are so interconnected and dependent on it. Woolley states that cyberspace is a new frontier. He gives so much information, history and many quotes from others with have written on this subject.

In Bolter & Grusin's "Remediation" they address the fact that nothing on the internet is original, every visual aspect on the internet has a new look and new feel but it is technically just an upgrade from past methods used. After we went over the definitions in class I had a better understanding of what Bolter & Grusin were tring to get across.

Hypermediacy- More than one media type coming at the user at once. ie. banner, music, hyperlinks, pictures.
Remediation- Moving from one idea to the next. ie. book into a movie
Medium- system of representation. New medium takes good stuff and puts it into a new medium.
Immediacy- sense of feeling you are there and thinking you are there.

In class we did some freewriting:
Who monitors crimes that happen on the internet?
how are people punished?
Is there a better way?
Information saftey?
Hackers, I dont know much about them.
Transfer of money between individuals/banks/ect.
What type of media generates the most hits by users at other sites?
Which type of media is most commonly used?