Self.Net 2006: Thursday, 11am Tutorial Blog

Reflection

2006-10-27T16:57:00.000+08:00

I have to say that I have enjoyed this unit alot as it was quite relevant. Of course many subjects are relevant, but as I consider myself somewhat of a 'cyborg' after all the theoretical analysis, I have to remark on how prevelant the internet and cyberspace really is.

I found all the topics really interesting, and I actually enjoyed doing readings for once in my life! I was abit sceptical as it is a Womens STudies course, however I didn't feel that the content was particularly biased. WHat's more if you weren't happy with what you were being told, you just had to look online for alternate views.

As I have said before, what I have got from this is more to do with the sociology of the internet. I respect people with friends on the internet more, and also those who have found love. I am also intrigued by all the virtual communities. I really do believe that the internet is an extension of our physical reality.

Overall, this unit has been enjoyable.

Pause and reflect...

2006-10-25T22:59:00.000+08:00

It’s funny, but as I type this, I’m sitting at the main computer at home with my laptop on my knees (since the wireless network’s down again) but whereas previously it probably wouldn’t mean that much, now it gets me thinking about just how much of a role computers play in our lives. We’ve grown up around computers, and like I said last week, I tend to simply accept creations such as the internet, but after this unit, I also realize a bit more about the more subtle interactions that this simple acceptance makes all the more important online. I really enjoyed using the blogs as a part of the unit, but I wish we’d been a little more involved – I made a couple of non-essential posts, but it’s quite hard to go beyond that when you’ve got a busy semester lined up. I don’t consider myself a cyborg, but then that’s another part of the naturalization of digital technology, isn’t it? I know how difficult I find it to study without my laptop…maybe we’re all cyborgs in the psychological sense.

Sorry this is late, Alison - I misread the handbook and thought it said the last week, since I still have other classes this week!

Reflecting

2006-10-25T09:31:00.000+08:00

I can't believe this essay I'm finishing up is worth 50%! Eep!

I never, ever thought I'd take a unit in Women's Studies, but here I am having made it through. Being exposed to a feminism I can almost agree with, in the form of Haraway's theory of cyborgs, has been a positive for me -- changing the way I think about the whole -ism. And while the term sat funny with me at first, it is undeniable that I am a cyborg and have been for a long time now. And I'm happy about this: being either all human or all machine would've denied me so many experiences in my life.

Kind of like Jen, I came to this unit from a place of heavy involvement with the internet. Virtual communities, blogging, political organising and activism, yes - even alternaporn. My circle of friends is not small, but we all share similar attitudes towards technology and I really thought this was something common right across my generation. So finding out in tutes that that wasn't necessarily the case forced me to think in critical, scholarly terms about ideas I'd never expected to have challenged. I can't say I learnt much more about the *topics* we covered in the course, but I learnt more about people and society, which can only ever be a good thing.

As for blogs as learning tools, I do think they have potential, but I don't think they worked all that well in this unit. As others have said, 'required posts' kept us thinking about ourselves first, as opposed to letting group dynamics happen. We never *really* interacted as a community here, but I guess that's something that's pretty hard to develop in just eight weeks.

All the best for exams, everyone. I'm sure I'll see many of you around, maybe even in Gender & Pop Culture next semester, or maybe even in the blogosphere... :)

Justine's Reflection

2006-10-24T11:51:00.000+08:00

This course has introduced much food for thought. I have enjoyed the conversations we've had in Self.NET tutorials and workshops more than any other class! I guess this is because the use of technology can raise a whole assortment of hairy questions about identity, ethics, embodiment, surveillence etc. It also continually lurks at the back of my mind that technology represents our future, so in this way, the issues raised can be fairly foreboding! But whether scary, interesting, confusing, hilarious or just plain whacky, digital culture shows us perhaps the most extensive kaleidoscope of human being ever imagined!

For me, the use of weblogs for learning purposes has been a mixed experience, not having access to the internet at home has made things a little difficult. However, it has been very helpful reading outlines of tutorial presentations before the actual in-class discussion and the blogs have also allowed me to express ideas which didnt pop out in tutorials. In general the blogs allow for a greater circulation of ideas, which for the purpose of a university unit, is very useful. I would not recommend the use of blogs alone however, i think the mix of blogging, workshops and tutorials is perfect. I would like to give a virtual pat on the back for the structing of the workshops, because they allow the lectures to be interactive, WHICH IS GREAT, because usually lectures are just floods of information that get zoned out after about 10minutes when brainstorming the amazing possiblities of lunchtime (for me anyway).

Am i a cyborg? Well that begs the question, what is a cyborg.. if there is one thing i have learned in this course, its that you cant make any point without first defining the terms!! So I believe a cyborg is a human modified by technology. To me, technology is our tool, an extension of our desire. So yes, i am a cyborg, especially if i think about all the modifications i have made to my body, braces, glasses...hell, i should cash myself in! I consider my interaction with computers to also make me a cyborg. Whenever our desires are mediated by technology we become half machine, its like putting on a glove that allows you to reach further and higher than you can by yourself.

It has been fun, I would like to say a big hi and bye to all and wish you all the best for the future :) Justine

reflective post

2006-10-24T09:55:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone…

I guess it’s almost over, so good luck on the essays. Anyway, I guess I’m not entirely sure how I completely felt about this unit. I did enjoy the theoretical parts to it, the speculations into the future and questioning a cyborg identity, but I also think that some parts didn’t necessarily fit as well. I guess mainly that that’s because so much of this theory is new and hasn’t really been developed. I don’t think this is the fault of theorists; it seems like anything written over seven years ago is dated just due to the advancements of technology. For that reason, I enjoyed the lectures and the workshops, just because of the immediate application and current theory provided by the lecturers. As for the weblog, I don’t think that this class used the blog as a typical blogger would; it was not discussion, nor really opinions on current events that drove posting, but the need to meet the requirement for the class. The blog was just the medium for assignment submission, not a forum for opinion, debate or even simple conversation. I wonder if we had to maintain our own blogs throughout the semester and have a minimum number of posts if they would transform into something more blog-like. But then again, I’m not really a blogger and I’ve never even been to a blog before this class, so maybe it did what it was supposed to. Am I a cyborg? While I am at a computer, I feel organic and unconnected, and while I can understand the arguments Haraway puts forth, I have never really agreed. I don’t feel cyborg, but I suppose that’s always up for change.

reflective post

2006-10-23T13:15:00.000+08:00

As I sit here in the library, typing on my white apple ibook, with white iPod earphones sprouting out of the laptop and plugged into my ears, I realise I probably look like part of the computer circuit - perhaps an adaptor, and I ponder what Donna Harraway might say about it. She'd probably say I was moving towards the idea of cyborg, posthuman even. The unit has been an interesting journey, I was both frustrated and intrigued by the constant focus on technology - such an integral part of my life that I wasn't perhaps ready to admit. The breadth of ideas put forward by the readings indicate the vast implications technologies, especially those of the virtual world, have had on modern thinkers and our theories of culture. The writers we studied often gave a fresh, positive and excited view on technology that starkly contrasts the suspicion and hostility portrayed in popular media. At times, my own prejudices and uninformed opinions were challenged by the readings and tute discussions - which indicates the unit was a successful learning experience.

The blogging component of the unit was two-sided for me. On the one hand it was a useful way to begin to formulate ideas and interact with tutorial members in a virtual space, but on the other hand the very fact that posts were compulsory and assessed, seemed to defeat the very purpose and nature of blogging that we read about. I understand that if it wasnt compulsory few uni students would choose to post (that means extra typing), but perhaps a more free form e.g. a few posts that were compulsory but you could choose the topic to write about, would be more effective? Just a thought...

Overall the unit was a positive experience, except the 'gender' element to it was a little ambivalent. From the readings, workshops and tutorial discussions it appeared to me that perhaps a more comprehensive theory of cyberculture will emerge in the coming years from people of our generation - as we are the ones that have most thoroughly incorporated new technologies into our lifestyle so that they have become utterly normalised. Honestly, some of the comments made in workshops really indicated the depth of knowledge some people have of the digital age, and I wouldn't be surprised to see their writing in a self.net reader sometime in the future.

reflective post

2006-10-21T00:42:00.000+08:00

This unit made me think overtime!

I think after all that we've discussed and read, it was quite interesting to view this theoretical side of cyberculture. What I found to be quite 'obvious' was that our lives were so dependent on technology and the internet, that we take it for granted. It shapes and influences our lives without us knowing. We all said that we aren't so great with technology, but the fact is that cyberculture and technology cover such a vast range of things that we wouldn't be able to function without them.

It was also interesting to find out all the social, cultural and political issues that are involved with cyberculture. As if we don't have enough problems in 'real-time reality', there are all these implications that arise with the internet that makes us re-evaluate the whole notion of the network of people and embodiment. I think the idea of whether we are embodied or disembodied users is a confusing issue. It's easy to think literally about it: that we need our bodies to enter this virtual world, but all the conflicting arguments confuse and question my initial belief.

The actual blog itself was a great blogging experience to those who don't blog often, but I think we were quite restricted as to the content of the blog to fully experience what 'having a blog' means. Also the fact that it was such a large group of people who didn't quite know each other, it was hard to develop something general for us all to be involved in this 'community'. The group blogs that I've come across are a community of friends who've developed some sort of interest that they could create a collective blog.

I don't think I am a cyborg, I think the term has been theorised too much that we all seem like cyborgs. I just like to think simply: that I use the internet for information and recreational purposes, I use technology for efficiency and that's it. No more theories.

Sally's Reflective Post

2006-10-20T15:49:00.000+08:00

I found this unit to be an overall positive learning experience. I think that what I most liked about the course in general was the way it was divided into modules as this allowed me to place what I was learning in a specific realm to do with technology, and I found that this helped with the way I absorbed the material of the unit. Nothing really stands out to me as a negative attribute of the course, as I found the majority of the course reading to be relative as well as interesting.

I guess that I do believe that I am a cyborg to a certain extent, because I feel that the majority of my life revolves around technology, whether it be at home, at work or even at uni. Computers are an integral part of my life, and my home personal computer holds many memories for me in the form of photos as well as written text, and so I guess it is an extension of the memory in my brain. I would undoubtedly be devastated to lose the information on the computer but probably to a lesser extent than if I found out I had something like alzheimers. I guess what it comes down to though is that I can essentially function without technology, but it does play a huge role in my lifestyle.

I found the use of weblogs to be a fairly useful learning experience and this is mainly because I value the opinion of others as it definitely helps me to see things from another perspective. I found that reading other people's posts made me think of other sides to the points being discussed. So, I guess that mean that this weblog did work as a learning tool for me! I guess if there was more interaction on the blog than it would be even more useful, due to the constructive criticism being given, or someone offering their opinion on your thoughts.

Reflective Post

2006-10-20T15:40:00.000+08:00

Well, I guess this is it, huh. One last post before we all go our separate ways for the holidays - oh wait, we've got some sort of essay due before then, don't we... :)

So, the weblogs. How were they as a learning tool? Well, as a means of introducing people who had never before seen an online community such as this, it was probably a pretty good learning tool, an experience that they hadn't had before. From my perspective, however, from a person who is heavily involved in several online communities, I don't think it was a good example of the scope and involvement that 'true' online communities can offer. Participants (myself included) stuck pretty much to their required posts and comments, and there wasn't much use of the weblog beyond that. This could be because participants didn't see the weblog as a community, just as a place for assessed work to be posted. In any case, the weblog served its function adequately.

I don't regard myself to be a cyborg. Despite the theories put forward by various people in the readings we dicussed in tutorials, my idea of cyborgs hasn't changed: a man-machine hybrid, yes, but a human in which the machine parts are an integral and extensive part of the whole. I don't consider things like hearing aids or glasses to be integral or extensive parts of the humans who wear them, and unlike true cyborgs such things can be removed. Similarly, I don't believe things like mp3 players and computers make us cyborgs - they are merely new ways of interacting with our peers and the environment.

I came to the course with a heavy background in digital technology and online interaction. Approaching the readings with that perspective, I often found the authors made assumptions and conclusions that directly contradicted my personal experience of similar situations or statements, which was quite jarring. This was, I think, often due to the age of several of the readings. With the current advances in digital technology preceeding at a fast rate, such readings often become outdated very quickly. However moving past the readings, overall I enjoyed the course. So often the issues we discussed in the tutorial are marginalised by academics and critics and the general population, so it was a great experience to participate in a unit such as this where current issues can be discussed and debated.

I really enjoyed the tutorial discussions (and apologise if anyone thought I talked too much!). If anyone wants to keep in touch you can drop me an email: velithya AT hotmail DOT com. :)

~Jen

Reflective Post

2006-10-19T12:20:00.000+08:00

As I do not have the internet at home, I sometimes found the use of weblogs a bit difficult. I am also unsure as to how effective they were in my learning process, as I don't think they were as a major part of the course as I originally thought they would be. I have to partake in online discussions rather than face-to-face tutes for another unit, and this requires at least 3 mandatory posts every week. As this online discussion completely replaces our in-class tutes, i do find it integral in my learning processes. So although i think the weblogs are an effective part of the learning process, I didnt have enough interaction with them to feel they were an integral part of this particular unit.

I guess I am a cyborg, and it would be pretty difficult for anyone to say they are not in this day and age. However, thanks to this course, such a concept no longer scares me. But what does scare me, is how much i have learnt from this course and therefore how naive i was previously. As new media technologies are such a huge part of our society and this influence will only increase, i believe a larger percentage of the population needs to be more fully aware of some of the issues that have been raised in this unit. I know not everyone wants to be an academic but it is important that the power of the digital age is more knowingly considered.

What i disliked most about the course was the initial heavy theoretical issues that we begun with. They were completely unfamiliar to me and scared me off a bit. But as we continued I found the issues and concepts did actually relate to my own everyday life, which made it much easier to identify with them.

Anyway,
see you all around again, no doubt.

hayley

Final Week Reflective Post

2006-10-19T01:49:00.000+08:00

Before responding to Alison's questions, I want to tell you all somethings that I am very excited, and still exciting! Since I am going to post my final post for this until, I went to the login page of the Blogger, and it come up with Chinese characters!! That means all the descriptions that appear in the front page, and later on I found that even the posting entry page as well, are also changed to Chinese charaters! Before they are English! How smart the page is?!?! I always find webpages are in progress! Being smarter and smarter! q*0*p

Okay, after a semester I found that using weblog as a learning tool is quite good, first of all, it is an interesting way to hand in works. Moreover, I think it is bravo that we can read the works of our classmates that it is usually unable to do so in other subjects. It really demonstrating the 'culture of sharing' in nowadays digital world. However, it is still have its shortcoming, for example it is quite annoying that when we post our messages and find out that there are some words disappeared or the hyperlinks do not work (even we did not go wrong in the process). Well, it is also ture that it can give us some experience about technology is not always the utopia......-_-#

The most like of the course for me is the workshops, the materials are very interesting and relevant to the topics, I enjoy them very much! The one I like most is the week of culture jamming. And I think those inclass workshops are more interesting than those online workshops since the discussions of workshops are always come up with many interesting ideas.

Finally, the answer of me about whether I believe I am a cyborg is yes. Especially when I come to Perth in this semester, I am heavily rely on my laptop. I chat with my family, boyfriend and friends through the internet almost everyday, I read the journals in the online course materials database, I writing (typing) my assignments by using computer, I listen to the Hong Kong radio programs through the internet, I read the online Hong Kong newspaper everyday, and I manage the banking stuffs of Hong Kong and also here by using e-banking serive.

I feel discontent and insecurity when I cannot go online for a day, especially in working day. I feel I must miss somethings that I have to work online, even there it nothing. Once the electricity went out in my homestay family, I was very anxiety when I found I can't connect with the internet. I started to think about my boy friend or my parent may worry about me if they can't find me on the net (although they are not always be there ). And I thought I can't finish my study for that week since some readings are in the online course material database (but I still got 2 subjects are using course readers). Furthermore, I feel I started to get rid of working on essay without computer. I tended to think that working on computer is more convenient and I would notice my desire of having the computer very often when I didn't got one (for example when I studying in the library). But I think sometimes it is just the psychological need rather than I really need it, because it is not strange that when I got my laptop with me, I did not type anything on it but dropping my ideas by hand writing. So I think I already became a cyborg physically and also mentally.

Actually, I think the education organizations are implicitly leading students to become cyborgs. See nowadays computer has become the essential tool of study, even the kindergarten is also promoting to use information technologies. Our furture generations are seem to become cyborg inevitability.

Thank you all of you! You guys help my school life (Perth's life)become fruitful.

Vivan

wk 12 Reflective Post

2006-10-18T11:35:00.000+08:00

It is that time of year again when we all stress about getting our assignments in on time and dream of our summer lying on the beach.

I think this unit has been great. It has really opened my eyes on issues that I had not considered before. I found posting information through a blog particularly useful. Using a blog and not just reading about one really taught me a lot. I had heard of blogs and I knew what they were for but I never really considered myself a blog user until now. Using the blog taught me what a useful source it can be and I have found myself search the net for other blog out of curiosity.

Being a communications and arts student I found that using the blog really helped me understand some of the readings for my other subjects as well. This whole unit seemed to mesh well with my other units.

The best part about this unit is how relevant the information is to us. Learning about cyborg and virtual communities gave me a greater understanding of myself and how I interact online.

As for being a cyborg? Well I think I am. I think all women are to some extent. I feel that using technology is a part of who I am.

Thanks for a great semester.
>Rebecca

Week 12 Interactive audience reading

2006-10-16T21:22:00.000+08:00

Dan Harris's article titled Interactive Audiences follows on nicely from the online games theme in week 11. Harris discusses how today's society has turned audiences into media consumers, media producers, distributors, publicists and critics. This new participatory culture is the result of new tools and technologies, do-it-yourself media promotions and economic trends. Pierre Levy follows this idea by talking about 'a new knowledge space’, which has emerged due to technological advances in communicating such as the internet.

One of the main focuses of the article is online fan communities. Harris shows how the internet has increased the speed and frequency fans have in communicating with each other. Fan clubs have become larger and more diverse and as a result their power and ability to create action has increased. Harris mentions how the producers of Zena: Warrior Princess knew fans wanted to read Zena and Gabrielle as lesbian lovers and thus began to consciously weave subtext into episodes. This and other examples in the text indicates how the internet and greater accessibility for it has decreased the distinction between media producers and media consumers. If fans aren’t happy with storylines that can now create there own.

Harris shows how the games industry sees itself as marketing interactive experiences rather than commodities. It is also broadening consumer participation. Many players have been welcomed into design teams and helped create new versions of particular games. The Sims creator predicts two thirds of the game’s content will come from consumers.

The article ends by summing up how 'new media technologies have profoundly altered the relations between media producers and consumers'. A distinction between culture jammers and fans is also made by Harris, 'Jammers want to destroy media power whilst poachers [fans] want a share of it.
Overall I though it was a good article demonstrating the way we, as audiences, think of ourselves and how our perception has changed due to technological advances.

Playing Politics Workshop Response

2006-10-13T16:24:00.000+08:00

The two games I used for this workshop are September 12th and Kabul Kaboom. To answer the first question, I think the simulation games make people aware how big of threat terrorism is in western societies. Kabul Kaboom was very short especially the first time I played where ‘I’ died in two seconds. I didn’t think September 12th had much of a point, all you could do was shoot or not and when you shot not much happened. Because of these things, I don’t thing the games would have been that effective in communicating with people.

I didn’t find the political messages underpinning both games to be obvious. Kabul Kaboom uses American fast food stereotypes and September 12th uses ‘terrorist’ stereotypes. I found both games very simple and as I said before, found no point in playing September 12th. Because of this, I wasn’t really interested in finding out what the game was trying to say or what messages they were trying to convey.
I found this last question quite difficult but I gave it ago. I think I use the issue of terrorism in Australia and ways to prevent it. The player would have a terrorist situation and have to complete certain things to prevent the act from happening. If they completed all the tasks, i.e. report his suspicions by phone call, the player would win and the terrorist act would not occur. I think its important to have a winning goal to keep players interested.

Jen: Playing Politics Workshop Response

2006-10-13T16:00:00.000+08:00

I selected September 12th and Donkey John as my two games to focus on.

1. Do you think the political simulation games you examined would have been "effective" in communicating with people via the Internet?

I think they would have been effective in communicating with people over the internet, yes. September 12th, other than requiring the installation of Shockwave, is very easy to play, requiring only mouse clicks, and Donkey John harks back to the 'old-skool' style of gaming, in particular Game and Watch and of course Donkey Kong. Both of these feature, I feel, would have helped make the games attractive.

2. Was the political message underpinning the political simulation games you examined immediately obvious? If not, were you driven or interested to find out what the game was trying to "say" (apart from the fact that you have to as part of the workshop)?

The games make their point very easily - as soon as you fire the first shot in September 12th, and watch one or more civilians morph into terrorists in front of your eyes, the point of the game is made very clear. The Newsgamming press release linked in Webct says "As you try to kill the terrorists, you will always kill civilians ('collateral damage')." I actually managed to take a few shots without killing civilians, and soon discovered that taking out large buildings could also be done without killing anyone, and was a good way to see who was hiding behind them and possibly approaching your line of fire, but in general, the game's designers were right. It is almost impossible to fire without killing civilians along with terrorists.

One thing I noticed that I thought was very cute, and harkened back to the initial notice that it was a simulation, not a game, was that when you kill the civilian-turned-terrorists, some of their 'corpses' are civilian corpses, not terrorist corpses. In addition, every so often one of the civilian-turned-terrorists will turn back into a civilian. Little details like these are ones that can help sell the game to more people, because the game designers could have not bothered to put them in - but they did anyway.

Donkey John was a little harder to understand, and I think it was only because I read the accompanying interview while I was waiting for Shockwave to download that I understood what it was about. Unlike September 12th, Donkey John is non-intuitive and the gameplay is a lot harder. You require actual coordination to play the game, and I was surprised when, after dying about a total gameplay time of 30 seconds, I was told I had reached a high score. I must confess, however, that if I hadn't read the interview and had just stumbled across it, I probably wouldn't have gone looking for the context as to why it was made - although having been linked the game the person doing the linking almost certainly would have summarised what the game was about, or I wouldn't have clicked the link to the game in the first place. This is probably a symptom of the iGeneration that Tama was talking about a few weeks ago - if it doesn't immediately impact you or yours or isn't something shiny and cool, you're not really interested.

3. If you had to write a political simulation game similar in size and structure to those you examined, (a) what would be the point you were trying to make and (b) how would the game be structured and operate in order to make that point? (Just give a very brief outline).

Not being very politically minded, I don't really know that much about the current political situation and such. I would probably focus on America and their illegal war, and about how they banned press coverage of things like the coffins and tried not to publicise the casualty numbers and such like that. As to the second half of the question, I would want to make the game as simple to play as possible, because complex gameplay would drive potential players away. Perhaps some sort of whackamole-style game where players have to click on coffins as they poke out of holes, with the cursor being a big hammer with the american flag on it, or something, to symbolise the Bush Administration's attempt to hide the truth.

Playing Politics workshop response

2006-10-13T03:48:00.000+08:00

September 12th and New York Defender

The first game I played, September 12th, I found quite powerful. The futility of firing at terrorist characters was almost immediately apparent. The time delay imposed after each shot is taken was particularly effective in forcing the player to witness the effects of their bomb and reflect on the ultimate failure of the method. You couldn't get caught up in the speed of the game, so you spent time thinking instead. I also thought the instruction page was worded quite poignantly.

The games went downhill from there though. The pointlessness of shooting down planes in New York Defender was less immediately apparent to me; I thought they were just coming thicker and faster over time as it would be in any computer game. I got caught up in the gameplay mentality, trying to be quick and precise with my shooting, and didn't give much consideration to the underlying message. Had I not had to blog about it, I would've shut my browser window after a couple of plays and thought nothing more about it. The name and info line ("for those of you who wish we had a chance to defend ourselves on 9/11") made me expect the game to be one of twisted patriotism, but the tag line "go beyond your powerlessness and use your mouse to fight back" revealed the irony and also the helplessness of regular people - helpless both against attackers and against their own government's policies and actions. Still, the game lacked the humanity that S12 had - shooting down tiny plane images didn't really make you think about the civilian casualties involved.

An idea that springs to mind for my own game is based on a crushingly authoritarian remark that John Howard once made, about how he didn't care how many people protested, Australia would still join the 'War on Terror'. The user would play a government figure (perhaps the PM, perhaps a random ASIO official, etc.) in the centre of a group of slowly converging peace activists. The player could arrest/silence as many activists as possible, but for each arrest, two new activists would arrive. Or the player could do nothing, letting the activists eventually converge upon the officer, thus 'killing off' the character and ending the game.

Since I expect that the people who access these political games on the internet are already fairly liberal-minded, this game would serve as encouragement not to give up the fight for whatever they may believe in.

Political Gaming Response

2006-10-12T16:21:00.000+08:00

I think the games would have been partly effective in communictaing its message to the players. Upon playing New York Defender (NYD) I found myself to be more concerned with how to "win" the game more so than why the planes flying towards the twin towers increased rapidly. I simply assumed it was supposed to get faster with time, although thinking I will oversome the growing pace of the planes. In relation to Donkey John (DJ), again it would be partly effective. This is due to the fact that on first inspection I could see the ape who was supposed to resemble Prime Minister John Howard and the oil rolling towards Australia from a palm tree region, however it wasn't until I read the instructions that I understood the politics behind the game explicitly.

DJ is ultimately easier to to decipher the political message between the two games. The instructions fill in almost all the blanks and the game face does not contain as many political blackholes as NYD. The message 'Info: for those of you who wish we had a chance to defend ourselves on 9/11' for NYD is contradictory to the outcome of a 'tragedy' game. The goal of NYD is that you are supposed to lose, with the idea that an in-game loser will become an off-game thinker. Although, the desire to understand NYD is greater due to its ambiguity.

The game I would design would revolve around the message that even terrorists deserve a fair trial/justice/equality before the law etc. I would have an avatar that had been charged with a terrorism offence. I would have two alternate routes, a fair trial with elements of equality before the law, innocence until proven guilty, proof beyond reasonable doubt, evidence procedures and then contrast this to the military hearings at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The player could send the avatar through Guantanamo Bay and never accumulate enough points to "win" or send the avatar through a fair trial and accumulate enough points to "win".

Sally's Playing Politics Workshop Response

2006-10-12T13:53:00.000+08:00

I chose to look at the political simulation games entitled 'New York Defender' and 'Kabul Kaboom'.

1. Do you think the political simulation games you examined would have been "effective" in communicating with people via the Internet?

I think that the examined political simulation games would have been effective in communicating with people via the internet because they act as a medium that whilst the 'audience' or 'player' is participating in the game, they are actually receiving an embedded political reference.

2. Was the political message underpinning the political simulation games you examined immediately obvious? If not, were you driven or interested to find out what the game was trying to "say" (apart from the fact that you have to as part of the workshop)?

I believe that the political messages in both 'New York Defender' and 'Kabul Kaboom' were immediately obvious to me. The language used in the presentation of 'Kabul Kaboom' makes the political message underlying the simulation game fairly obvious. 'New York Defender' is more subtle with the language, with a simple message 'For those of you who wish we had a chance to defend ourselves on 9/11'. This is a quieter political reference which can be interpreted as either a dig at the American government for not preventing the attack, or against the Al Qaeda. If i didn't get the political references I don't know if i would be driven to find out the context of the games, but just make an assumption that they were stabs at the American government due to public receptions of George W. Bush.

3. If you had to write a political simulation game similar in size and structure to those you examined, (a) what would be the point you were trying to make and (b) how would the game be structured and operate in order to make that point? (Just give a very brief outline).

If i were to write a political simulation game similar in size and structure to those examined i think the point that i would try to make would be in regards to the representation of the female body in advertising because this is an issue that I feel very concerned with. The game would probably be structured containing examples of advertising that objectifies the female body and these images would be targeted and shot and then would turn into an image of an everyday female. I think this would portray the point that these images in advertising are not only false due to photoshopping but also are not an accurate representation of 'real' women and their ideals.

Playing Politics Workshop Response

2006-10-12T13:49:00.000+08:00

For the workshop, I used the games ‘September 12th’ and ‘Donkey John’. September 12th was of course concerned with the September 11 bombings while Donkey John was concerned with the Howard Government’s somewhat ridiculous stance to the “sharing” of oil resources in the Timor Sea, with East Timor, of which East Timor has a legitimate right to.

The political simulation games are effective in communicating to people via the net, in the respect that they demonstrate in a very simplistic way, that there are certain groups of people angry about a particular social/political event. For example, in the game September 12th, as the player you are able to create a day after the catastrophic event, where you can potentially stop the attack on the Twin Towers from happening. This demonstrates in a basic way, that what happened shouldn’t have and that you as the player can do something, even if the US government, to stop terrorists from attacking New York.

Both of the games I used had quite an obvious political message, particularly through the aggressive nature of both. Donkey John was not as obvious, but because I didn’t know the specifics, the game at least led me to find out the background behind the game and the politically reasoning for its creation. The fact that as the player you can change a situation that has already occurred through government non-intervention (as in the case of both the Bush and Howard administration), sends the political message that what happened shouldn’t have; and that you as the user can now change the situation, through your interaction with the game, as a consequence of your political awareness.

If I had to write a political simulation game I would construct the game around the war in Darfur. Huge human rights abuses are occurring in Darfur through the dislocation of the large numbers of Sudanese. UN aid workers are also unable to protect innocent civilians, because of the brutality of the Sudanese Government, as well as through their role as neutral and non-aligned aid workers. The character of the game would be a little UN official. Through clicking on the mouse you could bulldoze and blow up houses of the Sudanese government, to demonstrate how it might feel for the perpetrators to now have the same sense of dislocation and helplessness inflicted on them. The more houses you blow up, the less Sudanese are left homeless because the move into the land that’s left. The more Sudanese you relocate, the more points you score.

PLAYING POLITICS WORKSHOP RESPONSE

2006-10-12T12:04:00.000+08:00

Do you think the political simulation games you examined would have been "effective" in communicating with people via the Internet?

I believe they would only have been effective in communicating a very generalised political message or comment, due to the extreme simplicity of the simulated games. However, it is this simplicity that grabs people's attention, and perhaps this is the sole purpose of such games. They are not trying to thoroughly educate us, rather get us thinking about contentious issues. This is obvious is the September 12 game. The rather hideous simplicity and use of stereotypes leaves nothing to the imagination, and little lee-way for interpretation. I also thought the message became more evident through the captions used. For example, September 12 states:
"This is not a game. You can't win and you can't lose. This is a simulation. It has no ending. It has already begun. The rules are deadly simple. You can shoot or not. This is a simple model you can use to explore some aspects of the war on terror"
Further more (as pointed out in the press release for the game September 12), the fact that the terrorists keep multiplying, and you unavoidably hit civilians, simply but clearly communicates the idea that such issues are complex and simply dropping a bomb does not solve anything.

Was the political message underpinning the political simulation games you examined immediately obvious? If not, were you driven or interested to find out what the game was trying to "say" (apart from the fact that you have to as part of the workshop)?

I found the message was immediately obvious, as I said before, because of the provocative captions and instructions that preceded the actual games. For example, 'Kubul Kaboom', states "You can use the arrow keys to get the nice American food, but avoid their missiles. Remember kids you can't win this game, only lose". In addition the political simulation is referred to as : "a humanitarian game for a humanitarian war". However, I would agree that as the games were extremely simplistic and based on well known stereotypes, I would be more likely to take the arguments seriously by seeking further information on the topics and issues. I believe the games did perform their intended function though, as they caught my attention and forced me to think about such issues. It could equally be argued that a player would have to have a reasonable amount of political knowledge in order to be reached by the games, basically due to the simplicity of the simulations which clearly rely on a degree of presupposed information. (for example - the hamburger: perhaps a quintessential symbol of America)

If you had to write a political simulation game similar in size and structure to those you examined, (a) what would be the point you were trying to make and (b) how would the game be structured and operate in order to make that point? (Just give a very brief outline).

I don't really know what i would write a political simulation about. However i would definitely follow the structure of the games we previewed for the workshop. I would keep it extremely simplistic, use readily known images or stereotypes and construct provocative captions to capture the attention of the player and further extend my argument. I liked the way the game's captions were intended in a literal sense, which gives such simulations more emphasis and basis in reality. The writer's cleverly extend the notion of 'game playing' in order to creatively but emotively convey a message.

Jen: As We Become Machines: Corporealized Pleasures In Video Games | Martti Lahti

2006-10-12T10:33:00.000+08:00

The article discusses the relationship between the body and technology, as represented by computer games, It discusses the evolution of computer games in brief detail, suggesting that as that evolution progressed, instead of separating us further from our bodies, it actually grounds us in them. It then briefly discusses 'cyber envy', described as a longing to cross the human/machine boundary, represented by various games in which you can change your 'skin', play as your opposite race or gender, or ungrade your 'body' to become faster and stronger. However the article concludes that we can never cross this boundary and leave our bodies behind.

There are several issues to discuss regarding this article, and while I'll go into more detail in the tute I'll briefly outline some here. Do you agree with the main argument of the article, that video games ground us in our bodies rather than freeing us from them, or do you think that new media allows us to have 'out of body' experiences? The article mentions physically ducking and leaning in response to stimuli on the screen as evidence of a cybernetic loop between player and computer. Do you think this is evidence of such a loop, or merely an ingrained reaction to certain stimuli that would occur in the real world? What is your opinion on what Lahti describes as 'cyber envy'?

Finally, one can take pleasure in all sorts of leisure activities, many non-technological. Is it overanalysing to talk about cybernetic loops and desires to blur man/machine boundries when regarding a player enjoying his computer game experience, or is it a necessary analysis of his enjoyment?

Playing Politics Workshop Response

2006-10-12T01:14:00.000+08:00

In term of audience cover, placing the political simulation games on internet is “effective” to reach the large amount of audience. However, I think online game is not really a good and effective way to spread complicated or logical political message, only able to expressing the relatively simple or radical political though.

In the game “New York Defender”, the political message is not strong enough to make me notice while I am playing the game. I just think that I am familiar with the story background but not thing else. For me, it is only a classic straightforward shooting game which relocated in a real life “big issue” context. Moreover, I don’t have the motivation of find out the hidden political message afterward.

In the game “Donkey John”, I think I have got some “message” that embedded in the game. Originally, I am not familiar with John Howard, I don’t know his political believes or any of his policies. However, the online game gave me a negative impression of him- a grumpy evil. I think it is the purpose of the game designer to make player think in this way. He/ she is quite success in expressing his/ her simple, direct political though through this game. For this game, I have a little bit interest to know more about the politician- John Howard- to see if he is really that evil and to find out what has he did.

If I am being asked to write a political simulation game, the point I want to make is the evil of George W. Bush. The setting of the game is in a maze, like the classical “Pacman”. A cartoon naive little girl is holding a control machine which can launch the missile to the Middle East and Asian countries. On the other hand, George Bush is presented in a devil way that with evil eyes, long sharp teeth, and horns. In the game, George Bush is tracing the little girl in the maze; the little girl have to keep escaping George Bush, and as the same time needs to collect 3 heart shaped icons that place separately in the maze. If the player can successfully collect those 3 heart shaped icons, the game will end and George Bush will be arrested into the war criminal court.

Playing politics workshop response

2006-10-11T22:13:00.000+08:00

I think the games are definitely a different way to put across thoughts about political issues. Looking at ‘September 12th’ and ‘Kabul Kaboom’, I personally had to force myself to critically look at the other side of the game, which was to convey the notion that wars are not a way to solve things and that innocent people will constantly be killed amidst all the violence. Political simulation games probably have a target audience and that young children will find it hard to understand. Traditional games are produced in which there is an end and the situation is a win or lose. Such games might be more appealing to younger children, so I think such political simulations would be more effective among older people who are able to understand the issues behind games like these.

You could understand through the plot that you were in a Middle-eastern country and were targeting to kill the little people in black with guns. With what the media has portrayed to us and basic knowledge of the war in Iraq, it is obvious that in the September 12th game, that you were playing a soldier of one of the Western countries involved in the war. So by disallowing the player to win, it furthers lets you in on the fact that in reality, it’s the same situation.

I don’t think it’s that simple to create a simulation game. But in order to do so, you would definitely have to have a strong opinion on a certain issue and make the simulation game attractive enough so that on the surface front, it will appeal to people. And as they play the game, they will slowly start to realise to the extent what you are trying to portray. It is helpful where you can’t win the game, but it is also frustrating. So there has got to be more than just losing the game. Somehow letting the player know why it is they keep losing would be better than letting them figure it out for themselves.

The Politics of Playing: Games are Narratives

2006-10-11T18:33:00.000+08:00

Do you think the political simulation games you examined would have been "effective" in communicating with people via the Internet?

Effective communication generally involves three factors: A coherent message, clear communication of the message and a clued-in receiver. The information being presented about 9/11 through “New York Defender” and East Timor in “Donkey John” is a coherent message due to its simplicity, and this message is very effectively communicated in the form of a game, reaching a variety of receivers across the internet of whom 99%, due to the simplistic nature of the message, would quickly grasp the dynamics of the message. The internet is a great place to pitch a game because it enables the interactivity required for a game, while also allowing a user to play without leaving their present location, a kind of ease that is always appealing. Furthermore, the fluid nature of the internet means that the game will be accessible to thousands and gain publicity very quickly via emails/blogs etc. But the greatest asset of this kind communication can be found in an analysis of the medium; the internet game. As I previously pointed out, the internet is a fluid, readily available source of information; hence I will focus more on the dynamics of game-play in effective communication.

A game is based on player interaction with a set of rules. When a rule is broken the player can be set back in a game, however when a player grasps the rules (usually by trial and error), the player can then advance. All action is classified as either negative or positive in accordance with the goal of winning. In different games, the goal of winning is represented through different ideologies which help to classify all possible actions and set up the game, which is essentially a narrative, with a beginning and an ending based on the fulfilment of the ideology. It is a binary situation as Shuen Shing Lee points out. In order to play a game, we must learn the ideology, and so to a certain extent, participate in it. However this participation is without realistic consequence beyond the score; games are just a shadow of life, a less consequential series of actions we can take, a simulation.

The appeal of games comes down to several factors which are all based on the idea of a pre-created ideology that relieves us of having to make any moral judgements or decisions for ourselves. We are introduced into a pre-meditated world in which all actions are interpreted in reference to the ideology and thus have consequences that bring you either one step closer to winning or one step closer to losing. These ideologies are simple and binary, with clearly defined ideals (static end points) to be reached, which is essential in a game due to it’s win/lose structure. In this way games can be a pleasant break from the complexity of everyday decision making in life, and their extreme results, such as the destruction of our enemies in a fiery death can also be satisfying due to their blatant audacity. The lack of moral conundrums makes it fun because the player experiences no responsibility due to the lack of consequences of game-play.

A games’ greatest appeal is its interactivity. Interactivity is about choices, and of course in a game the choices are inconsequential and limited by the inherent nature of games, thus all choices essentially result in only two outcomes: win or lose according to the ideology of the game. However games such as “New York Defender” subvert this traditional game formula by disallowing a player to beat the computer and by “nullifying the concept of competition among players” as Lee points out. Thus “New York Defender” effectively communicates a clear and simple message; not only does it contain the usual game ideology - telling us very obviously who is the bad-guy and who is the good-guy - but we cant beat the bad-guy, and this subversion of game dynamics is strong statement to a game-player, inciting further consideration as to what the point of the game was. “Donkey John” is fairly obvious in its message, but its respect of the traditional game forms, allowing a player to achieve according to the ideology, actually makes this message less powerful in my mind, though a bit less extreme.

I think most people are aware that politics and people can be highly ambivalent at the best of times, and so the political game is first attractive because it is an amusing spoof, where else do we see an animated John Howard pictured as a big gorilla-shaped eyebrow. However, as I mentioned before, to participate in a game, you must participate in its ideology, and obviously “Donkey John” tells us that big, greedy Australia is ripping off small, noble East Timor. A player cannot help but notice the ideology of the game and I personally think this can lead you to think about the political issue behind it.

Was the political message underpinning the political simulation games you examined immediately obvious? If not, were you driven or interested to find out what the game was trying to "say" (apart from the fact that you have to as part of the workshop)?

As I touched upon in my first answer, I do think the political messages were fairly obvious, however communicated without any depth, which is understandable given they were in a very simple game format. These games outline the situations in highly sensationalist ways and basically hope that the average person may decide to take a moral stand beyond the game ideology by doing some of their own reading or investigation.

However whether a person will become self-motivated and morally engaged is another matter. Modern audiences are aware that this is a highly simplified version of events and that life is much more ‘grey’, thus games like “Donkey John”, with their dramatic extremes may initially evoke a wry chuckle, but this may then lead to curiosity as to the details behind such a strong ideology. Black and white representations can often at least attract scrutiny. On the other hand, a player may not wish to investigate the situation for fear of finding out all the intricacies and details of politics those depicted in “Donkey John”, or they may be put off by the simplistic and extreme representation of information.

I was somewhat motivated to find out more about the background of “Donkey John”. Especially after I first collapsed the bridge Donkey John was standing on, only to see him resurrected with a stronger one! The subversion of the game form got to me and made me think the situation was unfair, which is exactly what political campaigners want us to think. However it is an interesting situation setting a person up with a political simulation they can only lose because it belies the very idea of political campaigning, that we CAN make a difference!!

“New York Defender” was very precious, a tale of utter tragedy. Its ideology is easily displayed – it is obvious who is the bad-guy and who is the good-guy. I tried to shoot at buildings as well, but of course we are firmly positioned as an American who defends without managing to cause any damage to other Americans, which is ironic given the planes being blown up carried American passengers.

“New York Defender” was less effective than “Donkey John” because its tragedy was too dramatic and sensationalist. Not only does it encourage simple thinking about the world, its catchphrase, “Go beyond your powerlessness and use your mouse to fight back” is a deliberate set-up in light of the fact that you can’t win, stretching emotions even further about an already touchy subject. As for the violence of the game, which was the problem in the first place with 9/11 - it’s just that from an American’s point of view, the wrong people got killed - this kind of game encourages violence as a way to solve problems, again ironic given that this is also the motto of the terrorists. The portrayal of the most powerful nation in the world, America as powerless is also ridiculous.

If you had to write a political simulation game similar in size and structure to those you examined, (a) what would be the point you were trying to make and (b) how would the game be structured and operate in order to make that point? (Just give a very brief outline).

If I could make a simulation game, I would aim to make something that reveals the nature of politics, rather than just promotes a particular ideology. However it would probably be far more complex than the games analysed here purely because I would like it to have more choices and no obvious end, thus making it more realistic. Therefore it could not be a game, because a game is essentially a narrative, with a beginning and an end, and to have such conventions, you need an ideology by which to fulfil these positions.

This question essentially asks us to come up with an ideology, and in terms of politics there is no ideology I could come up with that I would want to promote in a game due to the simplistic narrative form of games. How can something with such unrealistic visions, shed a helpful light on the complexity of reality?

Playing Politics workshop response

2006-10-11T14:15:00.000+08:00

Today’s online gaming attempts to challenge more than just our need for a little entertainment. As we see in the online games many present a radical political message in game form as a means of presenting political ideas. The games ‘Kabul Kaboom’ and ‘September 12’ are used to challenge our thinking about the war on terrorism.

These simulation games are extremely effective in challenging and communicating idea via the internet. People often seek out the internet as an alternative means of current affairs information. By using the medium of video game people learn about issues through involvement. This is particularly true in the September 12 game where people playing soon learn about the consequences of war. In the game buildings are destroyed but rebuilt and the more destruction and death there is the more the citizens multiply into terrorists.

Kabul Kaboom and September 12 have obvious political messages. Both games are designed specifically to challenge the idea of the ‘liberating war’. In the game September 12 the more buildings that are destroyed multiplies the number of citizens turning into terrorists. In the instructions that game states that “the rules are deadly simple: you can shoot or not”, this serves to remind us that we, as citizens still have the power to change the events of war.

In Kabul Kaboom uses instructions stating “remember kids you can’t win just lose”. The game is nearly impossible to win. More bombs drop than food and the game is soon over. It is a sad reminder of the collateral damage of bombs.

If I was constructing a game of similar dimensions I would probably also attempt to use this medium as a means of challenging the ideas presented to us by the mainstream media. I would focus on the idea of ‘collateral damage’ which is an element often forgotten in wars on ‘terrorism’. I would construct a game where you try winning the war through the media. Points would be gained by publishing more political spin than the number of instances of collateral damage. I think that the game would be similar to September 12, because the amount of spin could never balance out the number of collateral deaths in a war. The game could never we ‘won’.

Video gaming in the new means by within people have begun expressing their political views. The internet is an uncensored place where political view can be expressed freely and video games can add new dimension to current issues. People are more likely to discover an issue when it is presented to them through the medium of a game which is not just entertaining but also informative.

Playing Politics Workshop Response

2006-10-11T14:01:00.000+08:00

1. In some ways the games defeat their popular purpose - to win. Once the gamer comes to the realisation that they are not going to win, you are able to look for the meaning behind the futility. If 'effective communication' is making people think, then yes, I'd say the games would be effective. In terms of entertainment quality and challenge, the games obviously tire quickly. I'm used to traditional games where 'game over' really means 'play again,' where you have another chance to start over and perhaps win. In New York Defender especially, playing again simply means re-experience the tragedy, or as Lee states, "retrial improves nothing". This is heightened by the lack of score chart. NY Defender seems to communicate the idea of hopelessness in a way that fuels Westerners' 'hate' for Iraq and Islam, rather than promoting the idea that both sides have got it wrong as in September 12th. Overall I prefer the message communicated in S12, and it is also more current to the political situation at present.

2. As the first game I examined, the political message in New York Defender wasn't immediately obvious to me. At first I though the purpose of the game was to give American players another chance to defend their country in some over-the-top patriotic gesture, a kind of simulation of heroism. This was suggested in the initial comment: "For those of you who wish we had a chance to defend ourselves on 9/11." It wasn't until I realised you can never win and the planes start coming exponentially that I gathered it was meant to be satirical. The article by Lee really emphasises this feeling of hopelessness that the game produces, as you frantically try and save the towers with no avail. In the end I just ended up trying to blow up the buildings myself before the planes hit. I don't think this was the political message intended. On the other hand, the September 12th game had an immediate effect on me. The frustration of never being able to avoid the civilians (I only managed once) really highlights the tragic effects of war tactics. The game conveys a warped utilitarian idea - that killing one or two terrorists is worth the 3 or 4 civilian lives that are also taken. The mourners that run to the dead civilians sides actually disturbed me - this doesn't seem to happen in other games. In a way, the game represented an interactive way of conveying a political message - the gamer can deduce that message through active participation, which results in that message carrying more meaning.

3. I'd create a game that comments on the Australian political reaction to assylum seekers. The player would be directing the boat of assylum seekers from say, Papua New Guinea, and would encounter many obstacles along the way such as storm, sickness, giant squids etc. As you navigate through the obstacles and approach the Australian shore you come under fire from the coastline, the bullets being little Johnny Howard heads. As hard as you try to dodge the bullets they come thick and fast, but there is a chance you make it to shore alive. But once you land, you are frog marched off to a detention centre and it is game over anyway. What a fun game.

blogging survey

2006-10-05T16:54:00.000+08:00

If anyone missed the workshop on Wednesday, it would be greatly appreciated if you would go to webct and fill in the blogging survey. Tama and I are really interested in your responses to the blogging aspect of the unit, and will be using the surveys to review the unit.
When you've filled it in, you could send it by email to me (bartlett@arts.uwa.edu.au) or the to English office (eccs@arts.uwa.edu.au) if you want it to remain anonymous.
many thanks,
alison

A rape in cyberspace; or how an evil clown, a Haitian trickster sporot, two wizards, and a cast of dozens turned a database into a society

2006-10-04T22:32:00.000+08:00

Firstly, I’ll admit that what appealed to me most about this article was the way it was written, which I found engaging after an initial period of mild confusion engendered by the title. I suppose some people might find the casual nature of the writing to be unprofessional, but it is important to remember that Dibbell is a journalist, reporting on what he saw as an important moment in the development of the digital community of LambdaMOO – essentially, it’s an opinion piece.

Dibbell spends most of the article detailing the events of the ‘Rape in Cyberspace’ and it’s aftermath, but in the midst of his recounting, he raises several important issues about the nature of and interactions within digital communities. Dibbell outlines the problem of defining an essentially text based encounter as ‘rape’, and indeed punishing it in any meaningful, yet proportionate way. Dibbell provides testimonies from the parties involved as to the ‘real life’ effects of the crime to confirm the interactions on LambdaMOO as potentially “profoundly, compellingly, and emotionally meaningful”. The “distinctions between the virtual and physical versions” of crime are further explored in the idea of capital punishment for the offending Mr. Bungle. The return of the ‘puppeteer’ behind Mr Bungle in a different guise is viewed almost casually, Dibbell describing it as an almost inevitable result of a punishment that was “no more or less symbolic than [the] crime”. The fascinating development from all this was of course the development of “a system more purely democratic than any that could exist in real life” and a justice system, concepts usually associated with the physical world.

What I found most interesting about the article was the problematising of the concept of freedom of speech. Dibbell argues that meaningful social interactions in an entirely text/language based world blurs the boundaries between thought/word and deed. However, he offers no solution that might protect “our precarious freedoms of expression” from this potential threat.

Now, this is just a summary - I hope you'll have read this already when we head into the tutorial!

The Virtual Community

2006-10-04T18:41:00.000+08:00

In the presentation, I am going to point out several main ideas and interesting points of the reading. These are the points I want to focus on and the questions that we are going to discuss.

Virtual community
- Cyber world enable people to form community base on their interests and concerns, and get rid of their geographical distance

Personal Experience of forming virtual community online in the early information technology age
- “I was audience, performer, and Scriptwriter, along with my companions, in an ongoing improvisation”
- Also, the norms of the community-WELL- “were established, challenged, changed, reestablished, rechallenged, in a kind of speeded-up social evolution”
- The community crosses the border into the real life gathering
- The strange feeling of: strangers in real life VS close friends in virtual space

Different uses of the virtual community
- “People in virtual communities use words on screens to exchange pleasantries and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, conduct commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play games, flirt, create a little high art and a lot of idle talk.”
- “Some people use virtual communities as a form of psychotherapy”
- People will create a new identity for themselves in the virtual space which is not exist in the real life“People in virtual communities do just about everything people do in real life, but we leave our bodies behind.”

Discussion:
- Many people said that the virtual space become a utopia which enable people communicate without under the stereotype of race, gender, age and social group. However, nowadays most of the community forming tools e.g. Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, BBS, Blog, etc. are facilitated users to post their photos to as their icon, which may appear in the buddy list of the other community members. Also, even people do not posting their photos, but they are tend to use the facial icons or the combination of symbols to perform facial expression in the text setting, e.g. :) , ^3^, q^w^p, -_-# . Do you think that we are really leaving our bodies behind, or we are actually making effort to let our bodies take part in the cyberspace?

The leverage idea: use less cost to have great effect
- “The technology that makes virtual communities possible has the potential to bring enormous leverage to ordinary citizens at relatively little cost”
- Including intellectual leverage, social leverage, commercial leverage, and political leverage
- The development of worldwide telecommunication network and personal computer are extremely costly in term of time and money.However, now it is “cheap” and “easy” for people to connect the “expensive” technologies

The author mentioned people are inevitably building virtual communities in the cyberspace, and the reasons are probably:
- The decrease of real life informal public space;
- And it is the usual response of people when there are new technologies emerge, e.g. Telephone and T.V. did before.

The worry about the virtual space and virtual community will be controlled by the big commercial or big political power in the future

Discussion:
Since this article is written in 1990s, we are already in the “future” by comparing to publish date. Of course the digital technologies and virtual space are still in progress, but base on our experience, do you think the cyber space and cyber communities are under the control of those big powers nowadays, if no, then do you think it have this tendency?

Sherry Turkle - Virtuality and Its Discontents

2006-10-04T12:13:00.000+08:00

Turkle offered what I view as a rather suspicious take on the online community. However, I did identify with many of the points she raised.

She begins her discussion by outlining the possibility that we increasingly prefer the simulation to the real, in relation to interaction. She utilises a useful example in her reference to the shopping mall and television to demonstrate this point.

A key quotation in this section (for me) was Tukle’s questioning proposition:
“But is it really sensible to suggest that the way to revitalise community is to sit alone in our rooms, typing at out networked computers and filling our lives with virtual friends?” (Turkle p. 387)

Turkle’s further questions “the loss of the real” by referring to what she terms the ‘Disneyland effect”. She posits three main ways that virtuality “tends to skew our experience if the real” (Turkle p. 388):
1. it makes denatured and artificial experiences seem real
2. the fake seems more compelling than the real
3. virtual experience may be so compelling that we believe that within it we’ve achieved more than we have
(Turkle p. 388-389)
She seems to strongly believe that ‘real’ life is still grounded in some degree to the physical experience of the body, citing her physiological experiences as a woman as integral to the understanding of one being a woman (Turkle p. 389)

Turkle then goes onto review her experiences with young people within virtual communities, whose participation had increased after 1993, when network access could easily be produced commercially. I viewed her interviewees’ comments as both negative and positive. Turkle states that for one user “MUDs offer Josh a sense of participating in the American Dream” (Turkle p. 390), while another claims “MUDs got me back in the middle class” (Turkle p. 391). Further more one user believed she “had more stuff on the MUD than she had off it” (Turkle p. 391). Turkle meets such perceptions of the virtual community with some optimism, as she seems to appreciate what the Internet has offered such people. However it appears such experiences also raise questions regarding one’s sense of self. Turkle strongly concludes this with her analogy between a patient on Prozac and a user’s virtual ‘self’ – “Where does the medication end and a person begin? Where does real life end and a game begin” (Turkle p. 391)

Sex and violence in cyberspace are then used as examples of the contentions between the virtual and the real. The LambdaMOO scandal is referred to, with Turkle asking “But can a community that exists entirely in the realm of communication ignore sexual aggression that takes the form of words?” (Turkle p. 392) She further questions the issue of accountability online in reference to a player’s death and use of guns and other violence.

Turkle’s final section deals with a discussion of whether the virtual world offers resistance or escape. She fears people will not solve real problems, instead choosing to invest themselves in virtual spaces, where the streets and virtual sex are safer! (Turkle p. 396)

Turkle does however agree that the virtual space is an “outlet for some people to work through personal issues in a productive way ; virtual environments provide a moratorium form RL that can be turned to constructive purpose, and not only for adolescents” (Turkle p. 396).

The following quotation raises some interesting issues in this final section:
“If the politics of virtuality means democracy online and apathy offline, there is reason for concern….the overall trend seems to be the creation of an information elite. Virtual environments are valuable as places where we can acknowledge our inner diversity. But we still want an authentic experience of self” (Turkle p. 396)

Turkle seems to conclude with a compromise that we don’t have to reject virtual life, but we don’t have to treat it as an alternate either:
“Virtual personae can be a resource for self reflection and self transformation….we can use the communities we build inside our machines to improve the ones outside of them. Like the anthropologist returning home…,” (Turkle p. 397)

Despite the decade Turkle is writing in, I think her article is still useful. The criticisms and fears she outlines are still very real today, and I do not think that all of her questions have yet been answered.

Warblogging as critical social practice

2006-09-28T09:50:00.000+08:00

Because the article was set out quite clearly, I have gone through and listed the points I found relevant. Their points sum up to explain how blogging, warblogging in particular, has taken quite a social change as a new form of media that takes on the analysis of current affairs.

Defining the Weblog
- They give a brief summary on what a weblog is- noting its prominent characteristics being the chronological narrative structure, which is essential to the blog and the interconnection with other online sources that may or may not be part of the blog.
- Blogs offer a way to surf the net (assuming it has links to other sites) in an organised manner without filtering through all sorts of information.
- It will be tainted with opinion and the blogger’s private life. The blog becomes a personal space fro the public to access.
- It is a place for information exchange and interaction. If the blogger allows, then discussion can arise in this place.
- Another use for blogs is as a way of discussing current affairs, especially such events like war.

Weblog Developments
- Technical and social development:
• Blogging used to be for people who knew web developing and programming. Now anyone can blog with software like Blogger.
• Socially it has developed into a forum for political analysis and expression. Example with the S11 bombings, weblogs provided means of communication.
• Coverage of wars has been dubbed warblogging- bloggers analyse issues regarding wars; provide personal opinions on the agenda.

Warblogging and/as Journalism
- Journalistic blogging from war fields- as a way to keep up to date with events and experiences
- Non-journalists who give reflections/ experiences of being near the war zone, eg. Salam Pax
- Those bloggers critiquing the events of the war as media consumers.
- Differing views on the extent that blogging s sort of journalism – amateur journalism, or just a blogging fad.
- Problem being the truth and accuracy of bloggers in association with traditional journalism. This is opposed to with the argument that there is a lack of theory with online news.
- Blogs could be just as factual; journalism nowadays is lacking fairness and accuracy.

Weblogging and New Media Theory
- The Net is a vast space that is (according to Redden, et al.) uncontrollable. It has recently been created as a new form of communication- being a process of development for new media.
- Warblogging has come about with creation of software that has broadened the type of people blogging, and the rise of political events that has occurred.
- Blogs are a form of new media, but by no means replaces traditional news however can be seen as just a commentary.

Kath Albury: 'The Ethics of Porn on the Net'

2006-09-21T09:50:00.000+08:00

"The sheer scope and volume of content on the Internet makes it hard to contain or classify. This may be why Internet porn seems so threatening and all-pervasive. However, it is the Internet's diversity, and capacity for participation and change, which offers to make the most positive difference to the ways that sex and sexuality are represented pornographically." (Page 202 of reader, 208 of article)

I already agree with what this article argues, but it's nice to now have some serious academic studies and thought to back up my opinions. This article is incredibly useful as both an eye-opener and as a primer for ways to counter classical feminist arguments against pornography, providing qualitative data to back such claims up.

Albury first considers how the Internet has 'domesticated' pornography. Firstly it has given amateurs - everyday people who don't necessarily conform to Hollywood beauty guidelines - the chance to produce and/or model/perform in their own porn, creating what truly appeals to them and doing so safely and relatively anonymously. Secondly it has liberated many sexualities and fetishes from social stigma and brought together once-alienated fans as a community, where conversations cover not only tastes in porn, but also careers, parenting, peer support for medical conditions, etc.

Then Albury explains the ethics of porn, first by distiguishing between "morals" and "ethics". She uses Foucault's distiction: morality - "black and white rule systems...generally imposed from the outside, without regard for context" - as compared to ethics - "the considered form that freedom takes when it is informed by reflection". (Page 201 of reader, 206-7 or article) Albury concedes that under many systems, such as Judeo-Christian or Marxist, pornographic images can and have been considered immoral, but argues that Internet porn is demonstrably different from its commercial counterpart and can be considered ethical because ethical judgements evolve through personal and community processes - processes which "may involve precisely the combinations of thought, conversation and action that are evident in amateur Internet porn sites". (Page 201 of reader, 207 of article) These sites are not free from codes of conduct, 'best practice' guidelines or internal values systems.

Tutorial summary: 'the good, the bad and the virtual'

2006-09-20T22:35:00.000+08:00

The Good, the Bad and the Virtual: Ethics in the age of information by Mark Poster

Throughout history, new mediums have been treated with suspicion as to their ethical implications. Poster's article focuses on the changing response to the Internet, and the ethical dilemmas it has raised.

Poster poses the question – can we sufficiently apply our day-to-day ethical norms to new media? He suggests that in this modern ‘mediated life,’ boundaries between relations among people and the internet are being blurred and tested so that the ethics we employ in ‘real life’ are no longer relevant – perhaps to the extent of the virtual world being beyond ethics.

While Poster bandies about ethical theorists and their ideas, assuming the reader has any understanding of early philosophy, (such as Lacan’s complex notion of the Other), he does provides a useful history of ethical theory and the degree to which ethics in the media have been explored. Poster relies heavily on Nietzsche’s work to propose a new ethic for the information age that “explores the good and the bad in the culture of the virtual” (p 540). He writes:
“The Internet enacts a massive deterritorialization of cultural values and by so doing links or reterritorializes the ethical and the political.” (p 542)

As well as developing a new framework for considering ethics in the virtual space, Poster examines the anxiety between the private and the public – how the accessibility of information (the purpose the Internet was first created and celebrated for) creates a fear that is perpetuated by other mediums (e.g. television), and calls into question notions of anonymity and censorship.
"The ease of disappearance requires a different type of moral obligation: the virtual invokes the ethical duty to maintain one's identity." (p 535)
Poster looks at these ideas with reference to some interesting examples.

One criticism of his discussion is of Poster’s idealistic view that it is actually possible to construct a virtual ethic that transgresses all boundaries. While a utopian ideal characterised the Internet in the early days (i.e. that it could transcend all morals), this view has found less support as it becomes more widely used.

Tutorial Summary 'Remote Control'

2006-09-19T17:40:00.000+08:00

Tutorial Summary

Lumby, C. & Probyn, E. (eds), 2003, Remote Control, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Pp. 159-172

The role of Ethics in journalism has always been a controversial topic. With the advent of the internet the responsibility of journalists has changed. Obviously this article is biased because the author is a journalist and naturally believes that what she writes weblog or actual article is ethical.

This author makes many relevant points in justifying the code of ethic on the internet:
The internet is endless and anything said will “remain forever” (pp.159). (Note that some web site like our own blog is able to be later edited or deleted by the author)
‘Webdiary’ is personal and not controlled by editors (pp.160)
People can interact over the internet with the journalist making news discussions more personal (pp.160)

However as the author points out the space is under her absolute control. This reverts back to the age old debate on ethics because the code of ethics is only voluntary and she can use only those codes which she agrees with. Journalists can not be forced into acting ethically.

Accountability is a major problem when it comes to the internet. However this author managed to use the power to her advantage. As the author points out we are always critical about the sources we seek out for our information. By being accountable for the statements made the author pointed out how people would come to trust the site and the standards ensured that people would feel comfortable contributing to the discussions. Accountability is the only means by which an author can be encouraged to follow the code of ethics.

As the author points out the relationship between journalist and readers remains tense. However the internet provides a new medium in which people can interact within the system, making the average persons opinion powerful.

Menu Driven Identity Workshop Response

2006-09-08T23:06:00.000+08:00

After spending all day organising the Cameron Hall Charity Vigil, I suddenly realised that I hadn't posted my workshop response. So here it is, a few hours late. (If anyone's interested, so far we've raised over $2600 tonight and we still have til 8am tomorrow morning.)

1. Which categories are available for users to choose from when signing up for Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or in order to use the Second Life gameworld? What presumptions do these categories make about users, and what does the absence of certain categories of identity say?

Hotmail requires country/state/name/DOB/gender(choice of male/female).
Yahoo also requires country/state/name/DOB/gender(choice of male/female), and you have the option of enterring your occupation/industry as well.
Second Life requires country/name/DOB/gender(choice of male/female). You also have a choice of avatar when you signup, catering to most racial profiles bar black people (there are darkskinned avatars, but they're not very dark).

These are fairly standard categories for signing up for online services. The 'gender' choice is restricted to the standard 'male/female' choices only, and all three services offered it in either a drop-down menu or radio buttons with no option to type in your own answer - a new user is forced to select one of those two options. There isn't a category for race, but I have yet to see any online service such as email or games require users to do such - being an online service, it's just not relevant. In addition, requiring users to select a race may paint the service provider as racist, whereas by not offering a choice in this category the service provider might be hoping to be seen as welcoming and non-discriminatory.

2. What sort of 'identities' are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles and those users who made them?

Profile details on Lavalife were only basic details - appearance (gender/age/height/body type/ethnic background), location, and very basic social things (religion, zodiac sign, smoking and drinking habits). Some of these details appear to be optional, as not all profiles contained all of them. The site itself seems very superficial in its profiles - the one-line comments the users make and the details the site asks for in profile creation are mostly about appearance and very basic social interactions. You could get a more specific idea of someone by walking into a bar. There are no options for interests or likes/dislikes, or anything more personal - the profiles we filled in to create our Blogger accounts were more detailed, with options for interests, music and movies!

I believe Lavalife, and the users of Lavalife, are therefore very visually oriented and looking for matches based on appearance first and interests second. (I could go on a bit of a rant here about relationships and such but I'll spare you in the interests of space :P Suffice to say that in my opinion the best and most lasting relationships are those that started out as friendships.)

Menu Driven Identities wkshop

2006-09-08T15:01:00.000+08:00

1. Which categories are available for users to choose from when signing up for Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or in order to use the Second Life gameworld? What presumptions do these categories make about users, and what does the absence of certain categories of identity say?

The categories available when signing up for hotmail and yahoo!mail are the basic generic categories used for most online services. While there is only a choice for male/female gender (no option for transgender or undisclosed), there is also no category for race and ethnicity. Age and gender seem to be more important to the online identity than say race, sexuality and class status. The main difference between the two was that Yahoo!mail asked for a job description including your position in that job, whereas hotmail did not. While it was an optional question, the implication was that you attained status through a higher-profile occupation.
Second Life seemed to advocate gender stereotypes through it's limited choice of avatars and genders. The avatars were decidedly female or male, even though some of them were part animal e.g. the 'furry female'. Second Life notes that "You'll have plenty of opportunities to be almost anyone you want should you change your mind later", except this is within a very strict framework. All of the avatars have very masculine/feminine bodies and also take on the roles of certain subcultures such as 'goth' and 'city chic'. While Second Life would like you to think online identity can be neutral and free, the restrictions in their drop down menus seem to contradict this.

2. What sort of 'identities' are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles and those users who made them?

The identities in Lavalife are overtly sexual and generally tacky. The need for a profile "quote" seems to lead people to cheesy pick up lines and sexual innuendo, but then again I suppose the site is geared towards people 'looking for love.' I found that the option for a profile photo (which most profile's had) really undermined the idea of a disembodied computer user and the ideal of a 'prejudice' free space. The pictures were all carefully constructed so as to portray a specific message, which usually involved sex. An interesting find was that there were no profiles for homosexual women or men over the age of 65.
I felt a little bit pervy looking at all the profiles, especially as i found myself skimming over everyone's "interested in...kissing, touching etc" and thinking 'wow she's pretty keen' and 'that guy wants a bit much.' In 'reality', most people wouldnt devulge these details til further down the track, so i guess lavalife allows people to be more up front early on with their sexual interests.
One more interesting point was clicking on the womanline link from lavalife, a site purely for lesbian dating. In the terms and conditions it specified you must be a woman and over 18; whereas on the manline counterpart, there was no such requirement to be a man.

Menu-Driven Identity Workshop Response

2006-09-08T14:09:00.000+08:00

1. I couldn't access the catageories you need to sign into a microsoft because I was already signed in, but I did notice a big difference between Yahoo and Secondlife. Yahoo seemed less racist in the respect that it actually offered as one of its main questions, what language you would prefer your hotmail account to be in. The most important question though was gender, while Secondlife didn't ask this question at all. Yahoo also placed inmportance on my birthdate, obviously wanting to categorise its users by age, so that marketing was more particular and it provides a certain amount of information on the demographics of users of yahoo. What I found most interesting about yahoo and even a little insulting was the fact that it asked for what type of job you did, as well as the position you held. This just reinforces systems of heirarchy, making it obvious that we can't detatch ourselves from our online identities, as our bodies, lives and lived experiences still play a huge role.
Looking at Secondlife was interesting because the only requirement for the site was your age. Considering that you 'preferred name' was the only other requirement- which is more often that not a fabrication- it wouldn't be surprising if even the age's were fictional as well. After, there's no reason to be truthful on sites like this.

4. I wouldn't say that any of the sites were inherently racist, but Lavalife did have ethnicity as one of its priority questions. I don't think that this necessarily means its's racist. If you put a picture of yourself on the web anyway, people are going to judge you regardless. At least if you're truthful then whatever response you get is because of the truth of your posting.
The site I liked the most would have to be Yahoo. Yahoo prioritised race in a very different way, by actually providing the user with a choice of languages that they could access their yahoo account. This shows that a number of nationalities use sites like Yahoo, and that Yahoo is willing to customise it so a larger readership can be included on the web. The only problem might be if you're chosen language was not on the list and you had no choice but to use english or a language 'close' to your own. While Yahoo allows you to customise your account, it may not be to the extent that some people would like. As with the issue of menu-driven identities, people may find that if they can't select themselves from a box, or as a category, then they are effectively rendered insignificant and the web ceases to recognise them and their individuality.

Menu Driven Identities Workshop

2006-09-08T12:19:00.000+08:00

1) In addition to the usual requirements of Name and security measures (such as Password), Hotmail requests users to enter their Country/Region, Gender, Birthdate, State, Zip Code and Time-zone. I found it interesting that the Country selection showed the USA as a default setting, an assumption that continued into the categories of Zip Code as well as State. This indicates a presupposition that the majority of users of Hotmail will be USA citizens – an attitude I find quite narrow-minded. In addition, the Gender category only provided a selection of male or female – not optional or even a choice of ‘other’ for those who do not feel that they fall quite so neatly into either category, such as transsexuals or hemaphrodites. Yahoo! Mail also had a similar set of categories (Name, Preferred Content, Gender, Birthdate and Zip Code were the required categories of choice) and similar assumptions, although they did not ask for country, the category of Preferred Content – was a very short list of assorted country and language groups that was far from as comprehensive as even the Hotmail list. Once again, Yahoo! US was the default choice, and Gender (a required category) only provided a selection of male or female. Yahoo! Mail also provided an optional selection of Industry, Title and Specialisation, indicating to me that they presume that those using their service are an educated group who would possess such qualifications. I think the absence of categories of identity such as race / ethnicity, religion, sexuality, etc on these two mail servers are not a result of the server creators’ dismissal of these as valid identity categories, but the fact that these identity categories do not impact as much on the service offered by the servers. However, this doesn’t explain why they ask for gender. In comparison to the two mail servers, I felt that Second Life had fewer presuppositions about those using its services. The available categories to choose from were Avatar Name, Birthdate, Avatar Appearance, Real Name, Gender and Country. Unlike the mail servers, Second Life did not have a default country set and the list was as comprehensive as that for Hotmail. However, Gender was again a simple choice of male or female. The choice of Avatar Appearance was very limited, with only 12 avatars, half male and half female, including two rabbits. Although I understand that it is difficult for a single website to provide a vast range of digital images to choose from, I think that the avatars available provided an extremely limited choice, in fashion choice, race and body shape. Also, I found the selectivity of identity categories curious, since the title of the MMORPG implied to me that it provided a means of escape or the formation of a second, digital life for the user. I also wonder if the server would have resisted selection of a female gender along with a male avatar.

4) I do not think that any of the websites I visited were inherently racist, especially the mail servers, as I consider that to be inherently racist, a site must have been intentionally created to discriminate against racial groups. However, sites such as Lavalife and Second Life may be considered to be unintentionally racist, as although the main intention of the site is not to discriminate between racial groups, they do discriminate by omission, with a very limited choice of groups available, and oall others forced to select mixed or other.

Sally's Menu-Driven Identity Workshop Response

2006-09-08T10:39:00.000+08:00

1.Which categories are available for users to choose from when signing up for Hotmail,
Yahoo! Mail or in order to use the Second Life gameworld? What presumptions do these
categories make about users, and what does the absence of certain categories of identity
say?

The categories available for users signing up for Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail, as well as Second Life include what country the user is from and also what gender they are. There is a list of countries from which the user can pick one from and I think that this limits their freedom of choice. Also, on all three websites there is only a choice out of male or female when it comes to gender, and this rules out people who do not feel that they fit into either category.
The presumptions these categories make about users is that they can only be from the countries listed which is not necessarily true. The absence of more than two gender categories gives me the impression that people who do not fit into either category are expected to align with one because they are the norms of society.

2. What sort of 'identities' are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed?
What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles
and those users who made them?

There is a presumption that the majority of users are heterosexual, and this is indicated by the 'example' on the home page of the site.
There are set questions for each user, which really creates a Lavalife identity rather than giving a true depiction of a 'real' self.
The presumptions of the questions / display presents the idea that gender and ethnic background are important aspects involved when choosing a partner.

Menu-driven Identities

2006-09-08T00:07:00.000+08:00

I'm going to try to talk about some of the things that haven't come up again and again in other people's responses, so sorry if I'm not *totally* thorough.

I found Yahoo!Mail quite shocking as far as assumptions go. Yahoo!US in English was preselected as the preferred content and, the glaring omissions from the regional Yahoo!s available? None from the Middle East! This dripped of American conservatism. When you select a content other than US/English, the language of the form (and the birthdate structure) changes accordingly and, most interestingly, the 'job' section disappears entirely. It is *only* present for US/English. Seems like an underlying racist assumption to me... Also, the visual verification code had no audio option to aid visually impaired users, thus assuming ablebodied-ness.

Hotmail's form was always in English no matter which country you selected. The use of "Postal" or "ZIP" code did change accordingly, though birthdate structure remained M-D-Y. They didn't ask any employment questions, but did have a checkbox for if you own or work with a small business. Could this be a heads-up for Hotmail to track your mail and see if you're using the free service for profit? They provided an audio version of the verification code, but to get that audio you had to click an icon/image, so if you were vision impaired and using a textreader on you computer, you still wouldn't be able to access this feature!

With SecondLife, you had to choose a surname for your identity from a provided list. It was long and varied, but most of the names were quite ethnically loaded -- you could tell which were meant to be more American, more British, more Arabic, more Chinese, etc. The avatars were intersting. The choice was very Caucasian-centric and the gendered representations of male and female were quite stereotypical - even the animals were distinctly gendered! The two 'Harajuku' avatars were created from existing Japanese subcultural identities that are considered very trendy in Western culture - implying that the target audience is thought to be quite Western. Additionally, American spelling was used throughout, despite the flag indicating English language choice being a hybrid of the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack.

And then there was LavaLife... The country list was alphabetical except for Australia, NZ, Canada and the US being bumped up to the top. A major assumption as to the users. This assumption was completely played to with the promo photos used on the site - *all* of them were of young, heterosexual, white couples. Even the success stories matched this. Also, since when did "white" become an "ethnic background"?! Other options are along the lines of Latino/a, Hispanic, Asian, etc., not 'brown' or 'yellow'!

My favourite bone to pick with LavaLife, though? What happened when you got out of the heterosexual arena. It was easy enough to get redirected to one of their subsidiary 'women seeking women' (WomanLine) or 'men seeking men' (ManLine) sites. First thing I noticed was the images. The first image you encounter on WomanLine is of two young Caucasian women, straggly hair, no makeup, very casual clothes (not 'trendy' like the fashion on the main LL site), leaning against a campervan! The next image is of two more young women, this time one Asian and one African (I think), both with closely cropped hair, again no makeup, pulling very strange faces. It seems these photos go out of their way to come across as not classically feminine, possibly unattractive, definitely 'different' - stereotypically 'dykey'. Then to ManLine, where the first photo is two nude young men, very well built, tanned and waxed, perfectly groomed...they appear to be in a steamworks or similar. Second photo is two metrosexual-looking men, also young. All are Caucasian. They're playing again to extreme stereotypes. Then I noticed the taglines... LavaLife has "where singles click" and WomanLine has "where women click", both quite innocent. But ManLine has "great men from top to bottom"! It explicitly relates to physical bodies and is loaded with sexual innuendo.

Menu-Driven Identity Workshop Response

2006-09-07T21:30:00.000+08:00

Hotmail and Yahoo! don’t provide many categories for someone to develop a particular identity. They listed the common categories like name, gender and date of birth, as well as a user name. Yahoo! extended their categories with ‘industry’ and provided a drop-down list of a number of occupation industries.
Second Life seemed to provide more identity, simply because there would assume to be online interaction between players. There wasn’t any racial question; however there was an age separation. When reading the terms and services, they stated that people of a certain age would be to one group and the rest belong to another. This could be due to safety reasons. A huge contrast with Hotmail and Yahoo! is that Second Life allows the user to ‘select’ an avatar, noting they cannot ‘create’ one. There is very limited number of avatars which means not a lot of diversity amongst players.
There really can’t be many presumptions made under the categories provided in Hotmail and Yahoo!, purely because not a lot of information is asked to be supplied.

Lavalife on the other hand had many categories for the individual to choose and form their identity with; probably because this is needed since it is an online dating service. In creating a profile, there are the usual questions, as well as questions about physical characteristics and smoking and drinking habits. One category in particular was quite disturbing, where they asked for a person’s ethnic background. We all know that ethnicity is as simply defined with a person’s racial background but what the list gives us are terms like, black, white, Asian, which is quite the mixture of skin colour as well as cultural background. Lavalife also provides a person to choose whether they want to be dating, looking for a relationship or to find intimacy. The categories provided within these are questions that seem appropriate for a reader to know about a person. In relationship, you can find someone’s annual income, and their willingness to have children. In intimacy, you can find someone’s sexual desires and sexual characteristics they find in a partner. In this way of categorising people, both reader and subject can save the time of looking for exactly what they want. So we presume that people, who browse under intimacy, will be looking for intimacy, and so on.

I don’t think there was any racism in the sites, just a general annoyance with the ‘ethnic background’ category in Lavalife. The sites itself does not generate any such racism but it may be different from within, between the users.

Just a thought..

2006-09-07T14:10:00.000+08:00

"There is no race. There are no genders. There is no age. There are no infirmities. There are only minds. Utopia? No: the internet; where minds, doors, and lives open up. Is this a great time or what?"

A rather idealistic statement, with a rhetorical question that tends to be less rhetorical than simply unrealised; we would have to shift our spheres of life much more drastically into the realm of the virtual before these dreams become reality, until then, key signifiers of identity will stay firmly rooted in the flesh - however I think it may happen eventually...

Workshop Wk 7: Response to Qu 2 & 3

2006-09-07T14:04:00.000+08:00

In Lavalife, four of the nine identity options refer to physical attributes such as height and gender. As for the others: two of the nine categories refer to an individuals’ spirituality (religion, star-sign), two to social habits (drinking, smoking) and one to location. To summarise, the viewer is presumed to care as much about the physical self as about personality markers (social, spiritual) and about a quarter as much about location. It is interesting that in virtual space ‘looks’ matter as much as personality considering the 'freedom' that is possible, however it should be kept in mind that this site is ultimately geared towards physical union, thus there will need to be fairly truthful accounts of the physical for the site to be considered useful to singles etc, hence the abundance of direct questions about physicality.

It seems surprising that personality classifications are linked to star-signs! A bit new-age, especially when contrasted with the archaic classification, religion. At least this assumes that applicants are interested in an individuals’ spirituality, or inner self. The aspects of whether a person drinks or smokes seems strange to me, I would call it an ‘outer-self’ classification. Maybe one could assume a non-drinker = introvert, and a social drinker= extravert, and perhaps ‘heavy drinker’ is code word for alcoholic! Smoking is a big deal here, my only comment here is that all the advertising campaigns surrounding it have given it hot-seat status, hence it is included when assessing how a person might come across socially.

The assumptions are that we do go out and drink to be social, what about hobbies like water-sports or stamp-collecting? It is also assumed star-signs are an accepted indication of personality, and that religion matters. Perhaps the people who construct these profile requirements are trying to pick out the things that could be the ‘deal-breakers’, for instance some people are against drinking and smoking and wouldn’t even consider dating someone who participated in these social activities, in contrast objections to stamp-collecting might be less drastic. In terms of social activities however, those who participate in smoking/drinking are probably of a similar type, more 'extraverted' people, and if there was a survey done of the kinds of people on these sites there may be more of this 'extraverted' kind. Perhaps it was assumed that there would be more of this type present, and hence certain questions were deemed relevant. Still, it’s an interesting classification for the social side of people. A similar approach could be taken with religion; this is potentially a deal breaker, more so than star-sign indicators. In terms of body, as I mentioned before, one of the core aspects of ‘a couple’ is physical union.

The applicant is restricted by sweeping indicators, or ‘deal breakers’ that tend to go for the guts of issues deemed relevant to the types of people predicted to use such sites. To improve identity markers, I would take away star-sign and request that the applicant select five words to describe themselves (go the thesaurus!) I think religion is a good question, however to address the social aspects of a person I would ask the person to write down their three favourite past-times. The physical self is important, and I think that the classifications here are fine. Location too is important – I wouldn’t change that.

The overall design of the website does not allow for many personal preferences, instead set options are provided, which means there is less room for self expression. However I would suggest that the rigid forms of identity provided in Lavalife are based on assumptions of the kinds of people that would be willing to use this site. Yes these options cater to stereotypes, but I don’t think that it is a damaging or even unreasonable assumption.

Menu-Drive Identity Workshop 4 response

2006-09-07T10:08:00.000+08:00

1. What sorts of ‘identities’ are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles and those users who made them?
2. How much of the "identity" that we can see online for the users on Lavalife is restricted by the overall design of the website? What changes would you suggest in order to "improve" the sorts of identity Lavalife users can construct?
3. Are any of the websites you've visited inherently racist? Why or why not?

In the ever growing electronic society the phenomenon of digital socialising has taken off. Lavalife is one such online dating service which claims to offer a forum ‘where singles meet’. It is evidence of a growing social online community seeking out alternative means of socialising.

In order to join the website users are asked to fill out a simple profile in order establish their compatibility with other online individuals. People can select whether they simply want to date or if they want ‘intimate encounters’. They are also asked personal questions such as how often they drink/smoke their physical credentials such as weight and height and social questions such as religion and ethnicity.

Such a service is difficult to take too seriously. Often such online domains have little credibility. Such sites do not require users to be sincere in their intention and profiles can be totally fabricated or not filled in at all.

The very nature of the site presumes that its subscribers are forlorn. The site works as an alternative means of meeting individuals.

There is very little actually personality behind the identities created by Lavalife. They ask basic questions that give very basic descriptions. There is space for a hundred words personal description but other than that people are not asked what they like or dislike or their traits and personal quirks. In searching for a possible partner people type in their preferences, limiting whose profile they see. This site could be described as racist because you can limit your searches according to race or religion, yet at the same time not limit searches according to eye colour or favourite music.

For such a site more detailed profiles should be created. Rather than details on race, religion or physical aspects people could put more personality in their profiles such as what food they like and how they like to spend their weekends. With detail matches would be more accurate and more effective. I also think that in today’s digital world people can express personality through the way they portray their web selves. Lavalife only offers participants the chance to fill in the online protocol and allows no room for personal web construction.

The internet offers endless future potential for such sites. As people turn towards more electronic modes of communication such site adapt to offer web spaces specifically tailored to meeting our social needs.

Lavalife Corporation. (Last updated 5 September 2006), Lavalife, [online]. Available from: http://lavalife.com.au/ [Accessed 5/8/06].

Workshop Week 7Response

2006-09-06T21:42:00.000+08:00

Question 2

The types of identities which are visible in lavalife are those which are generally desired by singles. All typical good qualities which the opposite sex generally looks for. Basic information is shown next to a photo of the participant such as gender, age, location, languages spoken, zodiac sign, ethnic background, religion, height, body type, smoking and drinking habits. This information allows a person to stereotype the participant and assess whether or not they are someone they would like to date. The shallow amount of information provided gives me the impression that the people looking and people registered on these sites are quite desperate to find a date. They just want to know enough to know they wouldn't be embarrassed being seen with this person in public.

Question 3

Not much of a person's identity can be seen on the lava life website. Socially approving aspects such as whether they are the right age for you, right religion etc can be attained but that’s it.In order to improve this people who have dated the participant could post their thoughts on them and whether or not they are telling the truth on the homepage. This would provide more accurate information about who the person really is. Information such as past relationships, their job, whether they are studying or not etc could also help provide a better description of the person. However, there is a space which lets the participant write whatever they want which allows them to be open and show their personality. They don't have to answer questions they just get to write.

Menu-Driven Identity Workshop Response

2006-09-06T16:55:00.000+08:00

1. The differences between the Yahoo! registration and Microsoft’s was interesting to me. I looked at Microsoft first and I didn’t see a strong a gender or racial bias. E-mail, password and a question. There was no opportunity to mention nationality, gender, or really anything that would portray the soon-to-be Passport user as any “type” of person. The questions, I thought, were dullish and boring. However, the Yahoo! page felt much more gender-oriented. You were required to declare either male or female and you were automatically encouraged to list your occupation. Is it strange that Yahoo!’s only offer to be custom-made was through job industry? It seems like there could be a lot of other questions that could have been asked if you really wanted it to be tailored to your needs. More than that, though, I thought that the security questions were more tailored towards males than females (although this could just be because I was looking for it). I (a little bit) hate myself for playing into these stereotypes, but childhood hero, sports team, make of first car, high school mascot… are these more masculine questions? It would be fair, I suppose if the other questions were tailored to women (lame example… name of your first doll? Okay, I struggled with this one, but I’m sick, give me a break), but they seem more neutral than anything else.

2. My first Lavalife search found a guy whose interests were: online sex, kissing & touching only, oral sex, sexual intercourse, fetishes. Are you serious? This must be a joke. Right? Somebody wouldn’t put that up there for real. Yet the more I search, the more that I realize that maybe all these people aren’t joking… It’s not that they want sex, or that they are into submission/domination and fetishes—whatever floats your boat—but that they want it from complete strangers who only know their zodiac sign. I guess my question is, who would actually contact them/anyone from this site? There is no indication to their actual personality besides drinking and smoking habits, and whatever they include in (sexual) interests. I do not think it is possible to know someone just by looking at these profiles. Could you ever actually date someone just by reading 50 words that they posted? I’m just so shocked… Does one girl who posts “caring,honest person” (sic) mean anything? Lavalife is completely inhibiting… there is no sense of a person at all, just one picture and random one to two word answers to marital status, zodiac sign, smoking, drinking, and interests. Maybe if you are a user it’s different, but man, this thing is scary.

menu driven identities - work shop response

2006-09-06T15:25:00.000+08:00

Which categories are available for users to choose from when signing up for Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or in order to use the Second Life gameworld? What presumptions do these categories make about users, and what does the absence of certain categories of identity say?

When signing up for either Hotmail, Yahoo! or Second Life Gameworld, all ask for your name, gender, and password. However, Second Life Gameworld is obviously different as it initially asks you to select a second life name, birth date and email address and then select an avatar. It was interesting that Yahoo! asks users to select their ‘industry, title and specialisation’ and Hotmail asks whether a user owns/works with a small business. The absence of an unemployment category appears to say that both sites assume all users are employed or middle – upper class. This was just one example of both sites’ basis on stereotypes.

I assume from the categories Second Life Gameworld chooses to include, that perhaps users of this site are perhaps more interested in escaping their ‘offline’ identities. The way in which the site orders the selection process is interesting. My immediate response to its request for a ‘second life name’ and avatar, before more formal information, was that this site is perhaps more ‘open minded’ than others. However, users must still eventually enter their real names, gender and location before continuing. In comparison to Yahoo! and Hotmail, the more typical questions are fewer, and assumed as having less importance.

What sort of 'identities' are visible in the profiles on Lavalife? How are they displayed? What presumptions does this display make about both the people reading these profiles and those users who made them?

It seemed to me that the men created either stereotypical ‘macho’ or more SNAGish type identities on Lavalife. Women seemed also to construct their identities around stereotypical ideas of femininity, and utilised sexuality quite overtly. However, this was mostly in the younger users (18-25). The older women seemed to emphasise the importance of personality more in their profiles.

User’s photographs seemed to reflect these stereotyped identities as well as the general information given about each person (gender, age, location, star sign, ethnicity, religion, height, bodily appearance, smoker/non smoker, drinking habits, relationship status). However I think the statements under the user’s names quite obviously reinforce western stereotypes, physically and emotionally. For example:

“the key to a healthy relationship is honesty, If u can fake that your in!!!!” (male)

“hey tall big built dj lookin 4 a special someone” (male)

“Don't be shy...come and talk to me” (female)

“just a little hot" (female)

The default identity was unsurprising to me. It assumes that the site is used mostly by females, between the ages of 25-35, who are heterosexual and in search of a more casual relationship, more broadly, again, I think it reflects an obvious stereotype. However the site does allow for the selection of man seeks man and woman seeks woman, which I did not expect. (Although these categories did not locate as many potential partners)

It seems Lavalife assumes a predominatly white user and reader. Those who make their profiles also seem to think this way as the categories of most importance were physical appearance, social status and activites, which are obviously western ideals. However, I doubt it would be possible to create anything but a western stereotype from the categories offered by Lavalife, again showing it is a predominatly white domain.

Menu Driven Identities

2006-09-06T13:21:00.000+08:00

Which categories are available for users to choose from when signing up for Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or in order to use the Second Life gameworld? What presumptions do these categories make about users, and what does the absence of certain categories of identity say?

Hotmail = region, name, gender, DOB (dd/mm/yyyy), State, Postcode, Time Zone, Small Business, security question, alternate email address
Yahoo! Mail = Name, gender, security question, DOB (mm/dd/yyyy), post code, preferred content (country), alternate email address, special offers, industry, title, specialisation.
Second Life = Gaming Name (surname restricted), birthdate (mm/dd/yyyy), email address(actual), avatar (m/f), real name, gender, country, newsletters/3rd party contact, who referred you, 1st or 2nd account on SL.

Yahoo's categories presume an english-speaking, affluent, employed American is signing up. Yahoo's security questions are blatantly formulated with American stereotypes, meaning that all users cannot relate to all security questions available nor have a question be relevant at all to the non-American user. Examples of Yahoo's security questions are "What was your high school mascot?", "What is your all-time favorite sports team?". Affluency and secondary education are presumed by the asking of industry, title and specialisation of the user as well as the inclusion of "What make was your first car or bike?", a materialistic memory, as a security question.

Hotmail is the one site to not assume that all users will be American as blatantly as the others due to the date of birth configuration, region registration, and time zone questions. Hotmail's security questions are also more general to many nations/cultures/ethnicities (NB. Hotmail used to let it's users formulate their own security questions).

Second Life (SL) assumes an International user, although the site setup is Americanised. It is also interesting that Second Life is not too concerned with the real person, as more emphasise is placed on the virtual person you are creating. The inclusion of your Avatar, "Who referred you?" and whether of not it is your first or another account on SL are examples of the preference for the virtual person. Also, the use of personal details is more for forgotten passwords and legal age restrictions than marketing devices.

How much of the "identity" that we can see online for the users on Lavalife is restricted by the overall design of the website? What changes would you suggest in order to "improve" the sorts of identity Lavalife users can construct?

The identity of the users on Lavalife is confined to gender, age, location, zodiac sign, ethnicity, religion, height, body type, smoking habits, drinking habits, relationship status, gender and relationship status preference, interests (sexually) (excluding casual dating searches), and a display picture.

These categories centralise around the physical characteristics, sexual desires and social habits of the identity. These are mostly internal/private characteristics, except for the physical characteristics which is mainly a 'white' cultural construct (slim = different between cultures and nations, average = what's average????). More concerning is the fact that for a casual relationship, these sorts of characteristics are irrelevant except for perhaps the gender of the other person due to a users sexual orientation.

I decided to do a search for homosexual/bisexual males and homosexual/bisexual females of all 3 categories and came up with 8 females in the 18-24 category and 1 female in the 25-34 category and none after. There were 3 guys in the 18-24 and 1 in the 25-34 category. More interestingly, the site did not list the sexual interests of the person or the gender and relationship status preference despite the heterosexual and heterosexual threesome users having this information displayed under relationship and intimate encounter categories, as well as the option of heterosexual users to list "I'll tell you later" for their sexual interests under those same categories.

I think the identity could be enhanced by the inclusion of hobbies, goals, occupation, interests, affiliations or other non-sexual categories to be highlighted. As sex is only part of a relationship (and for some not a part at all), this should be reflected in the profiles.

Menu-Driven Identity Workshop Response

2006-09-05T21:10:00.000+08:00

The categories that available for users to choose in the Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail are similar. They included the first and last name, gender, birthday, living region and preferred user name. Yahoo! Mail also requests about the occupation of the users.

However, the one in the Second Life game world is much simpler, which just included the choice of user name and birthday. I think the lack of information choice here is actually want to let its users have lesser limitation within the game. Players just determine the others personality based on their actions and conversations within the virtual space but not have the presuppositions, or you can say bias, based on their other personal information discourse.

In the Hotmail, even the pages are enable user to chose their ‘Country/ Region’ but the usually place U.S. as the primary choice; people need to press the little triangle beside the option bar to choose their ‘other’ option. Yahoo! Mail as well, while the choice of ‘Country/ Region’ becomes the ‘Preferred content’.

There are other websites I have visited inherently racist, as some of our classmates noticed, that is the Blogger. In the Blogger, the format of day entry, also in the Yahoo! Mail, is following the U.S. format mm/dd/yyyy rather than the more popular dd/mm/yyyy. Based on these evidences, we can say that these big worldwide company have the presumption of their users are not only just Caucasian but is specifically the ‘American'.

There maybe some people want to state the point of these companies are assuming their users are English speaker as well, I think it is partly true. Moreover, I want to share you all my experience. When I first pressed on the hyperlink of Hotmail’s one, I went to a Chinese version Hotmail website. I think it is because the webpage has my previous entry records, it knows that I usually go to the Chinese version Hotmail, so the content and language are all Chinese, in term of language and practices, based. However, it is true that if people just enter the website address, they will get the English version webpage, even more, that webpage does not offer the alternative language choice for you.

Workshop 4 on WebCT this week only

2006-09-05T15:30:00.000+08:00

Some fantastic webliographies posted - well done!
Just to let you know that this week's Workshop IV is online on WebCT and will only be available for this week. It's on time release and disappears at the end of the week, so do get on and do it while you can.
Alison

Hong Kong Cyberculture: A Case Study - Amy Lai Tak-yee

2006-09-04T14:39:00.000+08:00

Themes

Looks at ICERED, an english-language community, as a case study of cyberculture in the broader context of "cyberdemocracy".
Enlightenment Ideal Project = exists on the internet because "the internet is not merely the only place where humanity exists peacefully and without constraint, but also the only place where humanity truly exists...thus [it] carries the Habermasian ideal world of true participatory democracy into virtual space."
"Your English sucks!" = digital technology widens the poverty, and class gap. ICERED is an interactive community for high-income professionals and university alumni of top universities around the world. This creates a boundary between tertiary educated people and those who aren't. There is division between the ivy league universities and other universities considered second rate. As english is an indicator of one's education and social background in HK, threads developed speculating on people's background.
"The Unbearable 'White-ness' of ICERED" = Cyberspace is described as dominated by whites and therefore excludes non-whites by means of shared knowledge and language. ICERED appears racist as threads develop that speculate on the inability of non-white cultures to match up to white cultures.
"Men are after sex, women, after money" = "the carrying of real-life sexism, harrassment, and abuse over to the virtual world". Lots of threads about HK women that called them unintelligent, bad-looking, and money-minded. The virtual allows the statements more inflammatory as no face-to-face retaliation is available. ICERED has a materialistic culture in it's threads with posts revolving around comparing cars and income.
"Homophobia and Queerness" = ICERED has a general homophobic atmosphere but also freely allows homosexual discussions.
"Who wanna be superstars?" = Things do not just begin and end in cyberspace, they affect the real world too. ICERED has popularity contests between people both part of the community and those who aren't, making them into celebrities. Social events were also conducted to introduce online personalities to other ICEREDs, making a cyber community come to life in the real world. Although an extreme of this resulted in some "celebrities" being stalked.

Outline & Use

I felt that the article explored the Habermasean theory quite well. It displayed how all aspects of an ideal speech situation are adhered to: "all subjects with the competence to speak are indeed allowed to take part in a discourse, to introduce and/or to question any assertion, and to express their attitudes, desires, and needs."

The article would be useful for a look at the democracy of the internet as well as the examination of the parrallel between real life and virtual life.

"But the study of ICERED shows how the body is far from being de-emphasised on the internet and how marganalization occurs online like it does offline. "

"Where anonymity is safe-guarded to the extent that one does not have to be responsible for his/her words, we are greeted with the most blatant remarks that sometimes border on the abusive."

"Leaving aside such grand goals as the greater democratization of the society, we again witness how it is indeed difficult, if not utterly impossible, to create a public sphere for communal participation in a manner distinct from the social and material cultures in which it was first created."

Tak-yee, Amy Lai, 'Hong Kong Cyberculture: a case study' E-journal on Hong Kong Cultural and Social Studies 3 (2004) http://www.hku.hk/hkcsp/ccex/ehkcss01/

2006-08-31T19:45:00.000+08:00

Reading: "The Embodied Computer/User"
Deborah Lupton

Symbiosis:

The computer is by far our most convienent tool, no other human creation is as in sync with human cognition as computers, which Lupton evidences with the process of typing as a "seamless transition of thought to word on screen".
Computers can become "physically invested in self" - the idea that we can experience ourselves through a computer, it reflects our nature back to us in a way that parallels a human relationship. Lupton goes as far as suggesting our relationships with computers are as intimate as lover's relationships.

The Disembodied Computer User: The Mind/Body Dichotomy

"A central utopian discourse around computer technology is the potential offered by computers for humasn to escape the body"
Body: "meat", "weak, passive and irrational" - feminine
Virtual/cyborg/mind: "does not eat, drink, urinate or defecate; it does not get tired; it does not vecomes ill; it does not die" - masculine

The Hacker Body:

The reality of the Hacker body differs greatly form the cyborg dream, to invest in this vision is at the cost of the biological self.
Hacker bodies/'wetware' are even more 'femine' in terms of being out of control, irrational and poorly managed.

The Humanised Computer and the Frightening Computer:

Marketing draws a strong analogy between computer and the human body, but also has to battle the anxiety we feel towards something with an ambiguous identity; computers are the most human-like entity we know, but not human.
"The overt reasons for portraying computers as h uman is to reduce the anxieties of computer phobia"
"There is something particularly monstrous about computer technology, in its challenging of traditional boundaries."
We fear "technologies capacity to consume us" - control.

Risky Computing:

As the user penetrates the virtual space, user can become vulnerable to the flooding of the interior user.
"Ambivalence lies at the core of all trust relations, because trust is only demanded where there is ignorance"
"For male users in particular, computers are to b e possessed, to be penetrated and overpowered"
"As with the female body, a site of intense desire and emotional security but also threatening engulfment, the inside of the computer body is dark and enigmatic, potentially leaky, harbouring danger and contamination, vulnerable to invasion."

Thoughts:

An extremely gendered discourse is set up; masculine penetration of feminine space - carnal knowledge?
An enlightement discourse is set up; human desire for knowledge/power/control of space is granted by computer - but to what extent?
Does the cyborg body grant a god-like virtual status?
Fear that our status will be usurped if we cannot control technology. Intersting to think about the parallels between Christian creation story and computer enlightenment - God creates man in own image, but wanting/not god, hence man invested with curious desire to know/be god-like, woman offers choice/becomes vessel of temptation/knowledge, man gains enlightenment, man covers/denies body. Man creates computer in own image, computer has desire to be human, computer gains choice/AI, computer gains enlightenment... Much extrapolation i know!!

Justines' Webliography

2006-08-31T19:37:00.000+08:00

Critically assess the ways in which gender identity is embedded (or not) in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies (CIT).

Gender identity is not embedded in the cultural construction of CIT per say, however CIT design often incorporates an understanding that has been characterized as masculine. My argument basically states that gender differences stemming mainly from biological predisposition influence usage of CIT, which in turn is noted as a more masculine domain due to its functional style, and therefore female identity may have to battle somewhat for expression, however contrary to radical feminist views, this space is not undemocratic. CIT may be modified by feminist theory, however the future could be less gendered than androgynous depending upon individual choice.

An interesting piece collaborated by several authors which explores the differing styles of communication between men and women and relates this to the unbalanced representation of the sexes in virtual space is 'Gender, Language and CMC'. This article draws heavily upon psychological research and explains that “despite the availability of this medium for both sexes, measured indicators have consistently revealed a heavily skewed male bias”, these findings are then tied to the differences in communicative style and the “modes of thinking involved in computer-related work”. When considering the cultural construction of gender in CIT we are drawn to the conclusion that these systems undertake processes reflecting the male mind, hence women find these technologies difficult to navigate. Thus gender influences CIT, however it remains to be seen as to whether or not its construction embeds gender identity in a non-negotiable way.

'The Dynamics of Gender' locates gender identity as a “continuum of properties in which individual persons are ambiguously implicated”, which would mean that virtual gender identity is a negotiable representation. As has been already ascertained, differences in thought structure and language may leave males with a stronger inclination towards this technology, which inevitably will mould the medium along masculine lines, rendering it more prone to patriarchal power systems. We can conclude that in terms of embedded gender roles, CIT may be more a more receptive vessel for male identities than female, how this may be expressed is in question. One of the attractions of this piece for me was this particular line: “blueprints for change must to some extent conform to social-cultural conventions and existing patterns of signification to be comprehensible” - which essentially means that in relation to the male bias of these technologies, any gender bending or redefining in virtual space will initially be defining itself against the pre-existing meanings, hence there may be extreme forms of expression as new meanings get `broken in' if you will. This article suggests that initial construction of CIT will implement traditional versions of gender, which must be rebelled against in order for androgynous identities to become acceptable.

In perfect sync with the aforementioned rebellion is a piece by Elizabeth Lawley . Not surprisingly much of the dialogue concerning the role of gender within CIT is carried out by feminist writers who have issue with this “male dominated” medium. Female thinkers find the relationship between gender and technology problematic, perceiving themselves as the exotic other for whom technology is an incomprehensible yet somehow crude enigma. Lawleys’ piece is exemplar of a radical feminist voice which inadvertently serves to create a binary opposition between technology as a `rational' male vessel versus the `irrational' female user, thus exacerbating the `problem' further. To a certain extent, Lawley makes a valid point when she assesses the masculine inclinations of technological design, but when discussing whether or not gender identity is rigidly embedded within the cultural construction of CIT, such sweeping generalisations leave us all at a loss, men as robots, and women as spilling pools of irrationality.

Much more succinctly argued is Alison Adams article 'Gender and Computer Ethics in the Internet Age'. This piece of writing appeals to me because it outlines an important issue which relates strongly to previous evidence about male predisposition towards the net. Adams boils down the crux of the matter when she describes “the utopia/dystopia seesaw” with the words:

“This imbalance seen through the lens of feminist concerns translates into, on the one hand, a view which argues that women have taken over the Internet and are subverting it to their own ends and, on the other hand a dystopian view of women's continued oppression magnified further through the lens of the internet and other ICTs”

Adams displays a more ambiguous attitude towards gender and its relationship with technology that is not as judgmental as many feminist writers, she instead suggests that feminist theory could contribute to computer ethics, and it is this suggestion of practical application that appeals to me.

“Knowledge should empower women as much as men to make forays into new conceptual spaces and expand intellectual borders”

Chua's essay concludes that “Androgynous endeavors” are predicted to be the eventual outcome for futuristic users of CIT if both sexes embrace this medium. In terms of the cultural construction of this medium, Chua notes that male influence over its conception has led to a “male view” of presented information, however he makes the point that this merely reflects the nature of the creator, not an antagonistic attempt to wrest power from the female portion of the population. Chua's discussion touches on research describing a lack of interest on the behalf of women in the areas of technology which renders feminist protests of inequality somewhat null, regardless of gender streamlining within cultures, ultimately we are all individuals and capable of gaining what we desire. As Chua points out, gender is socially and culturally constructed; therefore we consciously become the vessels, not the prisoners of such meanings.

Although not a page specifically about gender in CIT, I find it interesting to read between the lines of what ENLASO implies. ENLASO is dedicated to creating the future of CIT using graphics, a semiotic language molded to transcend identity specific barriers. Here we find rules such as “avoid graphics depicting gender specific elements” and importantly “avoid graphics depicting human body elements and body language”. If anything, the existence of such aims spells a future of freedom within virtual space, where individuals can attain a completely self-determined identity. Although CIT may initially be male dominated, as previous articles suggest, as the technology matures and becomes more accessible businesses such as ENLASO seem to spell an androgynous future for self-representation.

In conclusion, the spaces we construct are often a reflection of the spaces we already inhabit, and CIT is as susceptible to the power structures of the ‘real’ world as any other medium. It seems a shame that the most relevant articles about gender and CIT could be found only when “power” was added into the search equation. I included the reference to ENLASO because to me it could mean a break down of power structures defined by gender.

JenniCAM

2006-08-31T00:59:00.000+08:00

Reading assessed: Jimroglou, Krissi M. “A camera with a view: JenniCAM, visual representation and cyborg subjectivity.” pages 109-116 of Unit Reader.

Continuing the discussion about JenniCAM from Wednesday’s lecture, Jimroglou’s article examines the relationship of identity, subjectivity and gendered subjects/objects in relation to the pioneer site of the digital ‘homecam.’ The three main points of the article were hybridity, perversity and psychoanalytic readings of JenniCAM. Hybridity—if this comes as any surprise to any of us—deals largely in part with Haraway’s cyborg. JenniCAM is corporeal—a presentation of the actual body—but also technological—transmitted through digital media on the internet. The two are integrated into what may be an ideal situation for Haraway’s cyborg to manifest itself. For me, the more interesting aspect of this discussion came from how Jenni’s life, not just her body, actually became part of her cyborg identity. Jimroglou explains, “Viewers derive knowledge of Jenni’s life through non-synchronous, interrupted images that change at regular intervals. The pace and narrative of Jenni’s life is experienced by viewers in a timed, regimented, mechanical way rather than through serendipity or her own authored narrative. Instead, her life narrative is mechanized. This presentation of self transforms Jenni from a woman into a cyborg as her life unfolds through technology” (pg. 111 in reader). The second topic, perversity, was what interested me most. Jimroglou argues that JenniCAM erodes the line between the public and private spheres of life by making herself a spectacle, “transgressing notions of bourgeois femininity that uphold the woman as the guardian of morality and piety” (111). She invites the world into her private sphere—which is ironically one typically identified with being a woman. Is JenniCAM pornography and perverse? A contradiction between object and subject arises with the idea of voyeurism; the term involves seeing what should not be seen (her in her bedroom), yet Jenni invites the world to watch (111). The last section of reading involves a psychoanalytic reading of Jenni’s actions and creation of JenniCAM. I personally question about Freud sometimes… Jimroglou discusses Jenni’s body as a fetish, a sexualized object (113), and I am not sure how I feel about that. However, I did think that the reading of the multiple pleasures in JenniCAM was interesting. The main idea is that Jenni remains beyond pleasure, explained more eloquently: “If an object is endowed as a site of meaning and wholeness, the continual disappearance and reappearance of that object can be a source of intense pleasure, despite the fact that the wish for a return to wholeness is never fulfilled… The viewer takes pleasure in the disappearance and return of the image; its loss and return brings great pleasure to those engaged in the fort-da pleasure of JenniCAM” (114).

Lisa's Webliography

2006-08-30T22:36:00.000+08:00

WOMN2205 – Critical Annotated Webliography

Guiding question: From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human.

Such a question, if it was to be answered, would contain a very long discussion, purely because of the vast field it covers. There are so many angles to look at whilst exploring the question that one could go beyond Frankenstein and the Visible Human Project (VHP). For instance, I would choose to include cyborgs in my discussion, purely because it is hard to analyse the notion of the interpretation of the body as a limit to humanness without divulging into all the other factors that determine what it means to be human. Because of the broadness of the topic does not mean I found it easy to recover relevant sources. There were a lot of sources that did not meet scholarly standards and many of which I found had to be discarded.

In Dr. Sam Vaknin’s review ‘On Being Human’, he covers plenty on the meaning of being human. He clearly defines what he means by ‘human’ before dwelling into his arguments. He lacks the in depth analysis of the human physical body, which could help answer the question; however I like that he explained what it means to be human in more of a behavioural manner. He points out the parallels of Frankenstein and androids, that they are both monster creations. Towards the end, he raises the issue about being human with the physical body. His point about mortality as the defining human characteristic can be argued to reinforce the point that the VHP does not allow a human being to be immortal. A representation of the body is vastly different to that of the continual existence of the body with a soul. Vaknin’s review could be used as the support for defining a human, although it is not quite a clear cut definition. Because it was a review, his reasons were straight to the point.

To explore into the depths of the VHP, Waldby’s paper is quite an analysis. Titled ‘Body Parts that Matter’. This is rather a feminist piece of work, so it is such a source that should be carefully examined to ensure the right information is extracted from the text. Similar to the other two online articles, Anderson also makes a comparison between two different (yet similar) creations which is Frankenstein and the cyborg. Rather than separating the two creatures in his analysis, he incorporates them together to try to gather a sense of similarity between Frankenstein and the cyborg and the blurring of the creations with that of ‘man’ and this indirectly questions are views on the ‘humanness’ of these creatures. Anderson also explores it the other way, suggesting that both creations do not depict what is human (physically) and hence this reinforces the subject of mortality which is our limit as human beings. His writings are quite long, and explore many other qualities of this topic, yet he makes a few brief points that demonstrate the concepts that can be explored in this essay.

An article by David Stonehouse refers to analysing our limits as a human and to the extent we can see the cyborg as pushing this limit further. This article is about the cyborg evolution that, according to Kevin Warwick, will inevitably take place. He is a case of the first ‘human cyborg’ whereby he had linked his nervous system to computers. The body being used this way is an instance of what the human body will become in the future. To be human is to be intellectual, and Warwick believes that in the near future we will be able to program intelligence into our systems. This article gives us the ability to somewhat counter-argue this limit that is placed on human beings, and through reinterpretation of the body ( ie, including the cyborg as an element of ‘human’) we can redefine humanness. Because this was an actual news article, it is formatted for easy reading hence it was not hard to select relevant points to utilise.

Seth Glick provided useful information to which helped to distinguish the cyborgs relationship to the human. He defines what a cyborg is and makes the claim that we are already being transformed into cyborgs in this era. This discussion of cyborgs further helps us to explore the extents of our humanness and also redefine our stereotypical views of what a cyborg is. His article makes that link between the body and ‘human’, how we have moved on from the VHP and onto a new interpretation of the human body. This is another news-like article that is written to inform more so than to critique notions of cyborgs and humans. Nevertheless it helps to explain and build on what we know of the question.

I think this just goes to show the amount of information that is available through the internet, and it is just looking at the right articles. However, it is the filtering process that comes across as hard, because the World Wide Web can hide a lot of what we call hard evidence. And it is just this that hinders the use of the internet to support underlying arguments within an essay.

Bibliography:

Anderson, Robert W. ‘Body Parts that Matter: Frankenstein or the Modern Cyborg?’ (10 May 1999) http://www.womenwriters.net/editorials/anderson1.htm (accessed 23 August 2006).

Glick, Seth. ‘A cyborg explores what it means to be human,’ (23 November 2005) http://www.stnews.org/rlr-2419.htm (accessed 23 August 2006).

Stonehouse, David. ‘The Cyborg Evolution,’ (March 22 2003) http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/21/1047749931869.html (accessed 23 August 2006).

Vaknin, Sam. ‘On Being Human’, http://samvak.tripod.com/human.html (accessed 23 August 2006).

Waldby, Catherine. ‘Revenants: The Visible Human Project and the Digital Uncanny’, (30 August 1996) http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/VID/Uncanny.html (accessed 23 August 2006).

Caroline's Webliography

2006-08-30T18:28:00.000+08:00

Question three: Critically assess the ways in which gender identity is embodied (or not) in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies.

Supporting an argument using the aid of web sites alone proved to be more challenging then I originally thought. Researching gender identity and whether it is embedded in the cultural construction of information and communication requires academic and thoroughly researched work which are hard to come by. Using Google as a search engine I managed to find a few academic web pages which each had an extensive list of references to support their argument. This was very useful as related sites on the topic, which were also credible, became easier to find. Online journals were also useful in finding sophisticated articles on the subject.

Gender, Identity, Language Use in Teenage Blogs, a report by scholars David Huffaka and Sandra Calvert was the first credible, useful and relevant source I found. It focuses on teenagers and their online identity and language. The focus on teenagers rather than the whole online community is one slight drawback from the report, as adolescent information is not particularly useful for my essay. The report argues that language is the key means to how identities are explored and created. It raises some useful points such as how the Internet is a virtual world which can be flexible and anonymous, thus ideal for identity exploration[1]. However, the results of the experiment show that men and women’s blogs are more alike than different[2]. This does not support my argument that gender identity is embedded in communication. Therefore the outcome of this site was not particularly useful but its background information was. It also had an excellent layout and detailed references, which helped me find further sources for my argument.

Another appropriate source found was a lab report titled On-line smiles: Does gender make a difference in the use of graphic accents?, written by Diane Witmer and Sandra Katzman. It examined the way men and women communicate in a computer-mediated environment. The report focuses on the language differences between the genders and the amount of graphic accents used i.e. a smiley face or frown created by the keyboard. The two experimenters aimed to see whether it’s possible to determine the gender of a message sender by the cues in the message[3]. This idea is useful in assessing whether gender identity is embedded in communication. However, the outcome of the experiment was unsuccessful as two of the three hypotheses weren’t supported and one was partially supported. Thus, no reinforcement that gender identities are indeed embedded in online communication came from the experiment. One reason for this could be that graphic accents are generally used in moderation and not something that I would regard as an authentic measure of gender identity. Therefore although the experiment is relevant to the question, it’s results don’t prove that gender is embodied in online communication to a great degree.

Gender and Web Homepages, an article by Jill Arnold and Hugh Miller, contains useful findings that support the notion that gender identity is embedded in people’s homepages with or without there awareness. Arnold and Miller argue that gendered attitudes and assumptions are part of everyday life and it is hard to escape them even with computer-mediated communication[4]. They show an example of gender differences in cyber space is by a woman using a flower picture on her homepage as opposed to a man placing a stereotypical male image such as a car[5]. Arnold and Miller’s main argument is that individuals may be carrying outmoded gendered assumptions and stereotypes without actually realising it[6]. The article is reasonably short, well referenced and raises some good questions about future possibilities for gender and online communication. Overall, I think this article would be very useful and relevant in arguing that gender identity is embedded in communication technologies.

The article titled Gender and Racial Stereotypes in Daily Newspaper Comics: A Time Honoured Tradition, was very helpful and practical for my essay. The report focused its research on newspapers, particularly newspaper comics, as well as television and advertising. This differs from my previous sources which concentrate on blogs and homepages. The focus of the study was looking at the role women play in comic strips. The results from the investigation showed that women were more often associated in the home or domestically while the men were represented in leisure activities[7]. These results prove that gender identity is in some cases still stereotypical to traditional ‘norms’ and that gender roles are evident in information technologies. Television research in the experiment also supported this idea with women being underrepresented in commercials compared to men[8]. The article also focused on racial stereotypes and minority groups and how they are viewed in the media. This information is not relevant to my essay, however due to the clear layout it was easy to overlook. By altering the focus from online communication to print and television, this article would help reinforce my argument as it broadens the view on communication and information technologies.

An article from Time Magazine, titled Meet Joe Blog, explores the power and influence that blogs now attain in today’s society. The article gives good background knowledge about blogs and illustrates the power of online communication and information. It also gives new insight about the effectiveness of blogs but referring to Salam Pax’s well-known blog and it’s influence during the Iraq War[9]. However, the article does not mention gender identity and whether or not is it embedded in the use of blogs. Therefore, although this article improved my knowledge of blogs and online communication, it is not really relevant to the essay question. Thus I would use source sparingly, if at all.

Overall, most of the sources I found outlined above will be very useful in writing my essay. It is clear from my sources that a lot of research and experimentation have been conducted in examining gender identity and whether it is embedded in communication and information technologies. The information I have supports the notion that gender differences are apparent through blogs or homepages. The media are also responsible for promoting gender stereotypes and focus on traditional roles of men and women, although this idea needs more support. Overall, I would argue that gender identity is embedded in communication and information technologies, even if sometimes the awareness that its there is ignored.

Webliography:

Arnold, J., & Miller, H. (1999). Gender and Web Home Pages. Paper presented at the CAL99 Virtuality in Education Conference, London, March 28-31.<http://ess.ntu.ac.uk/miller/cyberpsych/cal99.htm>, accessed 26th August 2006

Glascock, Jack and Preston-Schreck, Catherine, “Gender and Racial Stereotypes in Daily Newspaper Comics: A Time Honoured Tradition”, < http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_51/ai_n8694424>, October 2004, accessed 25th August 2006

Grossman, Lev and Hamilton, Anita. ‘Meet Joe Blog’. Time Magazine, 163, 25, June 2004, <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040621-650732,00.html>, accessed 25th August 2006

Huffaker, D. A., and Calvert, S. L. (2005). Gender, identity, and language use in teenage blogs. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(2), article 1. <http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/huffaker.html>, date accessed 25th August 2006

Witmer, D. F., & Katzman, S. L. (1997). On-line smiles: Does gender make a difference in the use of graphic accents? Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 2 (4). <http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol2/issue4/witmer1.html>, accessed 26th August 2006

Sally's Tutorial Reading Introduction

2006-08-30T16:17:00.000+08:00

Reading to be introduced: 'Cyberstalking: Gender and computer ethics' by Alison Adam (pp. 117 - 125 of the Unit Reader)

Adam’s article looks at how old social problems have been transcribed to the relatively new realm of the internet. She conveys the idea that feminist theory can provide more answers than a traditional liberal ethical response and that feminist ethics can provide an alternative in comparison to responses of computer ethics. The question of whether privacy is different for men and women is raised, particularly in relation to the internet. In the article feminist ethics are applied to reported cases of cyberstalking, where in all three cases the people carrying out the ‘stalking’ impersonate the ‘stalked’ online. The majority of victims in cyberstalking cases are considered to be female, where as the main perpetrators are considered to be male. It is outlined that normal channels of law and justice are not sufficient for dealing with this behaviour.
The three case studies:

woman receiving attacks posted in response to her, also claiming she was a pornographer, this later turned into someone posing as her giving out her contact details
jilted ex boyfriend assuming his ex girlfriends identity in internet sex chat rooms.
a woman became the victim of anonymous obscene postings for defending another woman’s view

Another case study is also given, where the man is the victim. However, the material posted in his name was not of a sexual nature but about the politics of Thailand. He entered a lawsuit with the internet service provider and won.

A couple of useful quotes:
‘Feminist ethics embrace attempts to rethink and revise the facets of traditional ethics which devalue the moral experience of women. … In developing various women-centred approaches to ethics the overall aim of feminist ethics is ‘to create a gender-equal ethics, a moral theory that generates non-sexist moral principles, policies and practices.’’ (p. 119 of reader / 212 of Adam)
‘…the Internet reinforces and magnifies stereotypical gendered behaviours rather than smoothing them out and acting as the great leveler that some desire.’ (p. 120 of reader / 214 Adam)

This article would be most useful when looking at the gendered nature of the internet, or when considering feminist ethics in relation to it.

Steph's Webliography

2006-08-30T14:53:00.000+08:00

The process undertaken to locate the sources to answer the guiding question; Critically assess Donna Haraway’s assertion that ‘By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism. In short, we are cyborgs,’ involved the use of three search engines. They were respectively, Google Scholar, Dogpile and Yahoo Australia.

Jenny Sunden’s article uses Haraway’s cyborg as a backdrop to an alternative cyberfeminism theory. Sunden critiques three main theories of cyberfeminism as well as ‘focus[ing] on questions of online embodiment and cybersubjectivity.” In order to accomplish her argument Sunden outlines the existing theories, thereby being useful to assess Haraway’s cyborg from a clearer perspective. At a particular point Sunden introduces her version of the cyborg that builds on Haraway’s cyborg: ‘[w]hat my online adventures has laid the ground for is a cyborg with a gender-or rather, sex…’, which provides an interesting critique of Haraway’s cyborg. Furthermore, as Sunden explores Haraway’s ‘cyborg’ theory, she also provides examples of the cyberfeminism movement in practice which is useful as an example and also a search point for further information. The only problem with the article is that Haraway is dealt with as a foundation to the discussion and other feminist’s later work is reflected as superior, although it is an excellent article covering the main branches of thought for cyberfeminism.

Hari Kunzru’s article looks at both the context of Haraway and her theories. It is a brief article, however as it is for a magazine and not an academic journal this is expected. Despite the article’s shortcomings it reflects the concept of the cyborg simplistically which enables easy reading and understanding. Although, due to this journalistic style the concept is not explored in detail and Haraway is not quoted frequently. Also, the reflection on the cyborg’s ancestry is quite a good point as it places Haraway’s theory in context with a 1960s experiment on a white lab rat; the first cyborg.

Carolyn Keen’s article is a useful exploration of many important points that are central to Haraway’s cyborg. Keen examines how Haraway found certain analytical tools such as Marxism, psychoanalysis, feminism and anthropology problematic to use as a Social-Feminist, therefore explaining why the Cyborg was created. The examination of Haraway’s cyborg through past interviews, texts and papers is very insightful, indeed making the examination of the cyborg as Haraway perceives it very thorough. Also, the analysis of Haraway’s notion that women are part of an integrated circuit that evades patriarchal assumptions of women as the child-bearer is very interesting as a contrast to other feminist notions of women as “goddesses”. The only disadvantage of this article is that it is not a long article, however it is very concise and detailed on Haraway’s cyborg.

William Grassie’s article is very useful. It revolves around two prominent feminists and their conceptions of feminist philosophy, the biophysical sciences, and critical social theory: “Haraway's strong social constructionist approach to science is criticised by colleague Sandra Harding, resulting in an epistemological reconceptualisation of objectivity by Haraway”. The article offers an in depth analysis of three main points and then places these points against Haraway’s Manifesto, thereby enabling a clear layout of what is to be examined and whether Haraway argues this thoroughly. A disadvantage of the article is the fact that Grassie is very negative towards Haraway and biased towards Harding, which affects the detail given to Haraway in relation to Harding.

Scott McLemee’s article is very insightful into the impact of Haraway’s cyborg on social-feminist theory. Using the scientific revolution concerning biotechnology as a starting point to lead into Haraway is very good. Furthermore, McLemee frequently quotes Haraway’s Manifesto whilst analysing the cyborg, which allows a mixture of primary material and critique that is very helpful. McLemee assesses the concept of dualism, and as dualism is the system that the cyborg overcomes, this is very useful as a foundation to the concept of the cyborg. The only disadvantage of the text is that McLemee is quite colloquial and brief which undermines his efforts to analyse cyberfeminism.

Brenda Brasher’s article offers a useful history of the cyborg. Brasher explores the origin of the term cyborg from scientists Clynes and Kline, through to the beings’ development in literature and then into cultural metaphor. The article is very easy to follow and outlines the development of the cyborg very well. Also, the analysis of how cyborg narratives are uncovering essential religious questions that overcome the human and technology boundaries by putting our humanness against technology is very interesting in the assessment of Haraway’s cyborg (Also worth noting is the large amount of scientific and religious sources concerning cyborgs). A disadvantage of the text is the fact that Haraway’s cyborg is not assessed in any detail, it is merely referred to as part of the cultural metaphor of cyborgs. Therefore, this article is only useful as a means of placing Haraway in context with the historical development of the cyborg, although this is a critical development to understand the assertion that in short, we are cyborgs.

These sources would cover the guiding question’s directive to critically assess what is meant by Donna Haraway’s assertion that in short, we are cyborgs. The direction that I would take is to outline what a cyborg is in terms of science fiction, and cultural metaphor using Brasher and McLemee’s articles. I then would reduce my scope to primarily what Haraway has said she means by the assertion we are cyborgs by using Carolyn Keen’s article, as well as other academic’s interpretations of what Haraway means to be a cyborg by using Sunden, Kunzru and Grassie’s articles. My main argument would be that Haraway seeks to overcome the patriarchal dualisms of society through the ungendered cyborg (although it is said to be a ‘bad girl’cyborg) as a means to bridge these social conventions.

References

Brasher, Brenda E. Thoughts on the Status of the Cyborg: On Technological Socialization and Its Link to the Religious Function of Popular Culture. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 64.4, 1996. http://www.abdn.ac.uk/onlinereligion/thoughts.htm (accessed 22 August 2006).
Grassie, William. Cyborgs, Trickster, and Hermes: Donna Haraway's Metatheory of Science and Religion. Zygon 1996. http://www.voicenet.com/~grassie/Fldr.Articles/Cyborgs.html (accessed 22 August 2006).
Haraway, Donna. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York; Routledge, 1991), pp.149-181. http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html (accessed 22 August 2006).
Keen, Carolyn. Carolyn Keen on Haraway, “Cyborg Manifesto”. University of Pennsylvania English Department. http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jenglish/Courses/keen2.html (accessed 25 August 2006).
Kunzru, Hari. You Are Cyborg. Wired Magazine. 8.04, February 1997. www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.02/ffharaway_pr.html (accessed 23 August 2006).
McLemee, Scott. The Soul of a New Machine. The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 2003. http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i21/21a01401.htm (accessed 25 August 2006).
Sunden, Jenny. What if Frankenstein(‘s Monster) was a Girl? Typing Female Machine Bodies in the Digital Age. 5th European Feminist Research Conference 2003. http://www.5thfeminist.lu.se/program/pdfs/sundenkeynote.pdf (accessed 22 August 2006).
Dogpile: www.dogpile.com (accessed 22 August 2006).
Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com (accessed 22 August 2006).
Yahoo Australia: www.yahoo.com.au (accessed 22 August 2006).

Jasmine's Webliography

2006-08-29T23:46:00.000+08:00

Critically assess the ways in which gender identity is embedded (or not) in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies.

When we enter cyberspace, we use the available and already given cultural and social alphabet in order to "read" the new territory. The ways in which cultural constructions of gender identity are embedded in this new territory has been the subject of a large body of work, particularly in the field of women and their interaction with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

In Gender Issues in Information Technology Communication, Kuntjara briefly examines the ways in which gender identity is determined by language in cyberspace. She draws from general theories of language in verbal and textual communication (such as Robin Lakoff) to confirm that language itself is a gendered medium that presupposes the identity of its user. In the online space, when gender is immediately obscured, Kuntjara suggests “both men and women might be persuaded to use a language without thought to its gender-based appropriateness.” Yet Kuntjara herself is not persuaded by this, instead referring to Susan Herring’s body of work on online communication, stating that overall, women are more cautious in their choice of language online, as they write shorter messages, are more supportive, positive and agreeable and apologetic than men. In support of this she refers to an online Christian discussion group she joined, where the women’s conversations were confined to domestic topics while the men concerned themselves with heated debates. While Kuntjara hastily adds that there is room to break down these stereotypes of ICT as a masculine domain, it is obvious she feels the ‘inherent’ communication traits of women cannot be appropriated through participation in cyberspace.

Inextricably linked to theories of gender is sexual identity. In assessing the ways in which gender identity is embedded in ICTs it would be interesting to look at the experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the digital world. ICTs, particularly the Internet, have played an integral role in the construction and maintenance of queer communities. In

Court's Webliography

2006-08-29T21:10:00.000+08:00

Embedded Gender in the Cultural Construction of Information and Communication Technologies

Upon beginning this assignment, I thought I was doomed to fail. I initially used the Google Scholar search engine, which provided me with plenty of appropriate-looking titles and some author names to take note of for further research, but very few full-access articles and none that I would end up using. I switched then to the regular Google websearh engine and found that all hope was not lost. I spent several hours adapting strings of keywords to meet my needs and reviewing many pages. My preference became for articles linked to academic institutions, then for those stored on the websites of organisations, where the sites were complete with details about the history and work of said organisations.

'Is Technology Gender Neutral?' by Sandra DAVEY

Sandra Davey's work, although possibly a student essay rather than a scholarly article, provides an excellent overview of some of the critical thought that has examined gender and its cultural embedding in information and communication technologies (ICT). The reference to Juliet Webster's argument that "Western technology embodies patriarchal values" (1994), with a strong military-industrial orientation to and notion of modern technology, fits well with the history of the Internet as a computer network created by the United States military. Also of interest in historically contextualising ICT is Judith Wajcman's assertion that "technologies result from a series of specific decisions made by particular groups of people in particular places at particular times for their own purposes," (1991) supported in the essay by Cynthia Cockburn's work on the computerisation of the printing industry. Davey writes that Cockburn "highlighted the decision of particular groups to move away from the Linotype system, which required highly skilled male craft workers, to the smaller QWERTY keyboard, which simply required the nimble fingers of unskilled and low-paid female workers," (1985) from which I concluded that technology at least has been often designed in order to maintain the sexual division of labour in certain occupations. Quotes from Cockburn and Wajcman provide me with excellent ideas for future research and the possible direction of my response when they say that "to understand the different relation the sexes have to technology, we need to recognise the relevance of technology to power and to the emergence of power systems in the past" (1985) and "to understand any specific process or product, we must ask: who developed it, and why, and in whose interest" (1993) respectively. Finally, this essay touches on linguistic studies by Susan Herring into typical displays of gender in computer-mediated communication (CMC). Herring shows that our online communication reveals our gender, which problematises Donna Haraway's theory of cyborg technology as a framework for shedding the essentialist linking of the biological body and gendered expectations.

‘Computers and the Communication of Gender’ by Elizabeth Lane LAWLEY

I was pleased to again find reference to Donna Haraway’s ‘Cyborg Manifesto’ in this article, as Lawley shifts the physical cyborg body of the 1980s towards the virtual self created in modern communication technology and - in contrast to Herring above - reapplies Haraway’s “creature in a post-gender world” (1991) to encourage the taking advantage of the unstable gender boundaries exposed by new technologies. I also took particular interest in the lengthy historical contextualising of technology as deterministic and the more recent move away from this worrisome view, which allows users of technology to be seen now as subjects capable of enacting change, rather than as objects. Ruth Hubbard is quoted thus: “Technology is part of our culture; and, of course, our culture, which is male dominated, has developed technologies that reinforce male supremacy. Can this be changed by women becoming more involved with technology - not only as its users, but as its inventors, makers, and repairers? … Only to the extent that we gain control of the design and fruits of our labor.” (1983)

'Gender and the Web' by Assoc. Prof. Keng CHUA

Associate Professor Keng Chua's “webtext”, as she calls it, is most interesting in its section entitled 'What's In A Name?', where the sociolinguistic implications of many terms associated with ICT are discussed. The word 'web' connotes traditionally feminine activities such as weaving, spinning and looming, however we find more traditionally male activities like surfing and cruising in talk of using the Web. Chua continues on to reference the research of Dale Spender, who has pointed out that discourses emphasising the exclusion of women from the information society, or their lack of interest or pleasure in such technology, construct a social domain in which there is no place for women or femininity. (1993) I also found unique Chua's suggestion that “as work shifts into domestic space and away from corporate offices with the possibility of working at home, women may be empowered in the new technology which makes entry into the public sphere unnecessary,” implying one potentially large benefit from many women's comfort - socialised or otherwise - with domestic technologies.

'Dominant or Different? Gender Issues in Computer-supported Learning' by Cathy GUNN et al

Furthering the linguistic considerations, Cathy Gunn et al identify the masculinising of ICT through dominant cultural metaphors. They note the history of the term 'cyberspace' as being from William Gibson’s Neuromancer, where it is a highly sexualised female region used and controlled by men. Also mentioned is the popular referral to the 'frontier' of new digital technology, evoking - at least in US-centric terms - thoughts of pioneers on the “great quest for the West.” The majority of this article, however, is focused on methods of educating school-aged children, making it of little use to my essay beyond these brief considerations.

‘Gender and Information & Communication Technology: Towards an Analytical Framework’ by [Author Unknown]

This article proves a substantial resource for overviews of feminist perspectives on women and ICT. Of particular use in uncovering the cultural embedding of gender in technology is Cockburn’s (in Henwood) acknowledgement that “many tasks women have traditionally performed (such as knitting) are not defined as technical despite involving a high degree of manual dexterity and computation”. (1993) This leads to an argument for the total reevaluation of work, such that many of women’s traditional tasks would be recognised as technical and social definitions of technology as ‘masculine’ could be collapsed.

'Of Mind, Body and Machine: Cyborg Cultural Politics in the Age of Hypertext' by Julie M. ALBRIGHT

Albright here adopts Haraway's cyborg methodology in order to diffuse the nature/culture binary and culturally reinvent feminism in a digital age, an imperative to deliver women's theories of gender and technology from a presently marginalised position within the realms of both academia and technology. Albright purports that the common cultural metaphor of technology as masculine in not the influence of ICT, but a continuation of preexisting patterns of male dominance. Destabilisation of the subject (in this case, women) is acknowledged as a move that has always been important to feminists as a way to expose male power and enable emancipation and ICT grant this ability through bodily transcendence, allowing women to “create and signify their bodies and themselves by confusing the boundaries of organism and machine [and] thereby creat[e] new dimensions of social relations in cyberspace.” Cyberspace's encouragement of non-hierarchical collaboration and hypertext's (the language of cyberspace) non-linearity are also both celebrated as qualities resistant to “metanarratives of...domination”.

From this online research, I would feel well equipped to tackle the issue of how information and communication technologies are engendered by their cultural contexts. I have been fortunate to find articles that quote and refer to the 'paper-published' works of many prominent theorists, adding substantially to the number of ideas and facts I have available me. I would approach the essay first by looking at the historical placement of ICT, with reference to developers and the positions of power they primarily come from. I would then discuss the cultural narratives that frame technology as masculine, the power wielded by the terminology of ICT and linguistic studies such as Susan Herring's that reveal how gender is a (presently) inescapable feature of the mind and is determinable even through communications in cyberspace. This would lead me to look at hierarchy, linear structure and defined boundaries as sources of hegemonic masculine power and the ways in which cyberspace and theories of cyborgs, without needing to be gender-blind, can destabilise these sources.

Reference List

ALBRIGHT, J. M., 'Of Mind, Body and Machine: Cyborg Cultural Politics in the Age of Hypertext', https://www.eff.org/Net_culture/Gender_issues/cyberfeminism.article, University of Southern California, USA, year unknown. (Accessed 27 August 2006)

CHUA, K., 'Gender and the Web', http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw95/sociology/chua/index.html, Southern Cross University, Australia, 1995. (Accessed 23 August 2006)

COCKBURN, C., Machinery of Dominance - Women, Men and Technical Know-how, Pluto Press, London, UK, 1985, in Davey as below.

DAVEY, S., 'Is Technology Gender Neutral?', http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:y3QcQB-px3QJ:www.kcollective.com/capabilities/gender_neutral.htm&amp;amp;amp;amp;hl=en&lr=&strip=1, University of Technology Sydney, Australia, 1995. (Accessed 22 August 2006)

GUNN, C. et al, ‘Dominant or Different? Gender Issues in Computer-supported Learning’, http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/v7n1/v7n1_gunn.asp, University of Aukland, New Zealand, 2003. (Accessed 25 August 2006)

HARAWAY, D. J., Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, Routledge, New York, USA, 1991, in Lawley as below.

HENWOOD, F., 'Establishing Gender Perspectives on Information Technology: Problems, Issues and Opportunities', in eds. Green, Owen and Pain, Gendered Design? Information Technology and Office Systems, Taylor & Francis, London, UK, 1993, in Unknown as below.

HUBBARD, R., 'Foreword', in Rothschild, Machina Ex Dea: Feminist Perspectives on Technology, Pergamon Press, New York, USA, 1983, in Lawley as below.

LAWLEY, E. L., ‘Computer and the Communication of Gender’, http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, USA, 1993. (Accessed 22 August 2006)

SPENDER, D., 'What place for books and writers in the electronic world?', in Mulvaney and Steele, Changes in Scholarly Communication Patterns: Australia and the Electronic Library, Australian Academy of the Humanities, 1993, in Chua as above.

UNKNOWN, ‘Gender and Information & Communication Technology: Towards an Analytical Framework’, http://www.apcwomen.org/work/research/analytical-framework.html, APC Women’s Network Support Programme, [year unknown]. (Accessed 24 August 2006)

WAJCMAN, J., Feminism Confronts Technology, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK, 1991, in Davey as above.

WAJCMAN, J., 'The Masculine Mystique: A Feminist Analysis of Science and Technology', in Pink Collar Blues: Work, Gender and Technology, eds. Probert and Wilson, Melbourne University Press, Australia, 1993, in Davey as above.

WEBSTER, J., 'Gender and Technology at Work: 15 Years On', in Women, Work and Computerisation - Breaking Old Boundaries - Building New Forms, eds. Adam et al, Elsevier, Holland, 1994, in Davey as above.

Vivan's Webliography

2006-08-29T18:33:00.000+08:00

Critically assess the ways in which gender identity is embedded in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies.

The guiding question I have chosen for this ‘Critical Annotated Webliography’ assignment is ‘Critically assess the ways in which gender identity is embedded in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies’.There are six sources I want to focus on in the following part; they are all online resources in the World Wide Web. Because I have to make sure of the credibility of the materials, I have used the Google Scholar search engine to find these sources.

The source from the Women's Networking Support Program Homepage[1] is somewhat helpful for my essay. It functions in presenting the overall trend and focus of feminists and scholars in the study of gender and information and communication technologies (ICTs), so it does present a clear framework of the study. The summary and analysis can contribute to the introduction part of my essay. Besides, the writing noted that the gap between “information rich” and “information poor” is widening. This idea relates to income differences between the two genders in the general cultural context. The imbalances in wealth, education and ICTs access of males and females are likely to become a cycle. This cycle can be a kind of factor in the ICTs culture construction, especially in patriarchal societies. The shortcoming of this article is that it mainly is a summary (framework) of the study field, so it seldom has constructive arguments.

The second essay is from Susan C. Herring[2]. This is useful to demonstrate that the standpoint of gender identity is embedded in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies. In the essay, Herring mentions that the discussion group atmosphere in the 1990s, which is the period heavily dominated by males[3] in the ICTs field, women’s expressions were not welcomed in the discussion groups and sometimes women were treated offensively. However, males usually justified their aggressive actions and attitudes towards females as practising “freedom of expression”. People usually claimed that the culture of cyber space is open and fair since people can mask their gender, race, and social backgrounds; however, at the beginning of the information technology age, the virtual space was constructed to be a male friendly environment. The case of discussion groups can be an example of how genders oppress and are oppressed in the cyber culture of the 1990s.

The third writing is the work of Elizabeth Lane Lawley[4]. I think it is very useful for pointing out the existence of gender impact on information and communication technologies. Lawley mentioned other scholarly writings which share the same idea about males being dominant in the field of computer design, programming, software invention, and other technological products innovation. Thus the settings of ICTs products are inevitably pleasing to male users and closer to male experiences. Women, solely as users, do not share in ICTs design and so find it very difficult to change the environment to make it more women-user friendly. Lawley’s discourse is useful to support the argument that gender identity can be embedded in the cultural construction of ICT through design.

I found the fourth essay, ‘Gender and Internet Usage’[5], very useful. The writers gathered the statistics of Internet usage by the two genders. The data comes from various research units worldwide, so it is very good for reflecting the similarities and differences between regions. Beside the data of accessing the Internet by males and females worldwide, the writers also mentioned the idea of ‘the width and depth’ of adoption of the Internet. I think it makes the analysis more complete and real. On the other hand, I think the sociocultural factors [6] that the writers had mentioned are also the factors that constructing the ICTs culture. Furthermore, the writers’ data support Lawley’s findings and argument that technology design favors to males rather than females.

Katy Campbell's writing[7] is the fifth source. It enables me to develop my argument about the unbalanced gender population in the ICTs industry resulting in males designing the computer learning environment based on their awareness, thus actually reinforcing male dominance culture in cyber space. The article says since the development of ICTs, people are willing to use the technology to let learning become more flexible; hence, many computer and internet learning tools have emerged. Nevertheless, the ICTs educational tools are not suited to both male’s and female’s learning patterns because men react better to graphs and statistics but women tend to learn in a social context. Also, Campbell points out that some women suffer from computer anxiety, so the ICT learning tool is actually a barrier for them in learning.

The last essay is the journal of Azy Barak[8]. It is useful in demonstrating the negative cultural construction in cyber space. In the journal, Barak presents different forms of sexual harassment on the Internet. Barak also provides examples of types of harassments and data about the sexual harassment. Moreover, Barak points out that the offensive materials are almost entirely sent by men. This material can be seen as an example of today’s cyber culture. Sexual harassment by males occurring in cyber space instead of the real world is a very good example of how power relations between the genders has crossed the border between reality and virtual.

If I am really answering the guiding question, I will use the article of WNSP's Homepage[9] to outlining the framework of the gender and ICTs study to as the introduction part. I will develop the argument of male population is heavily dominated in the ICTs industry since the beginning of information age, this factor work with the uneven opportunity of being education between genders and the change of learning mode[10] reinforcing the pro male-user environment. The statistics of ‘Gender and Internet Usage’ will as the supporting data throughout the essay. The examples of discussion groups’ culture and sexual harassments will be used to demonstrate the way of males constructing their ideal virtual space.

[1] ‘Gender & information & communication technology: Towards an analytical framework,’ Women’s networking support program Homepage
http://www.apcwomen.org/work/research/analytical-framework.html (accessed 27/08/06)

[2] Susan C. Herring, ‘Computer-Mediated Discourse,’ RUG. http://odur.let.rug.nl/~redeker/herring.pdf (accessed 26/08/06).

[3] According to Ruby R. Dholakia, Nikhilesh Dholakia, & Nir Kshetri’s ‘Gender and Internet Usage’, there is only U.S. can obtain the balance proportion in Internet adoption of male and female, however, the “male dominate’ circumstance of today is already improved by compare with the 90s, so I used “ heavily dominated” to distinguish the different.

[4] Elizabeth Lane Lawley, ‘Computer and the Communication of Gender,’ University of Michigan: School of Information http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~rfrost/courses/Women+Tech/readings/Lawley.pdf
(accessed 25/08/06).

[5] Ruby R. Dholakia, Nikhilesh Dholakia, & Nir Kshetri, ‘Gender and Internet Usage,’ Research Institute for Telecommunications and Information Marketing Homepage http://ritim.cba.uri.edu/wp2003/pdf_format/Wiley-Encycl-Internet-Usage-Gender-Final.pdf#search=%22proportion%20of%20different%20gender%20accessing%20internet%22 (accessed 27/08/06)

[6] The factors talks about the different pattern and purpose of the genders when using the Internet

[7] Katy Campbell, ‘Gender and Educational Technologies: Relational Framework for Learning Design,’ Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education http://www.aace.org/dl/files/JEMH/JEMH-09-02-131.pdf (accessed 25/08/06).

[8] Azy Barak, ‘Sexual Harassment on the Internet,’ SAGE Publications
http://ssc.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/23/1/77 (accessed 27/08/06)

[9] Women’s Networking Support Program

[10] Learning mode from face-to-face teaching to become self-learning by using computer

Hayley's Webliography

2006-08-29T13:44:00.000+08:00

“From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human”. Discuss critically.

It is apparent that the status of the human body is becoming increasingly blurred in tandem with technological advancements, consequently transforming original human possibilities and reinterpreting what it means to be human. To begin my research into this issue I consulted the additional readings for week three, as they were relevant to my research question. After I gained an understanding of the arguments and knowledge of useful critics, I began searching through Google Scholar for online sources. This proved a great learning experience as I discovered many useful sources that I was previously unaware of, and developed an appreciation for online research.

Catherine Waldby’s article [1] would have been useful starting point for my discussion, as it outlines the significance of the Frankenstein narrative and the V.H.P[2]. Waldby offers a detailed account of the V.H.P and the contentions it aroused regarding human ontology and the status of the flesh within technology. She discusses in great depth the status of Joseph Jernigan stating his position is one of “indeterminacy between life and death, between living and dead bodies”[3]. I drew particular value from Waldby’s parallelism between the narrative of Frankenstein and the V.H.P, questioning the status of the body between death and life. Other elements of Waldby’s discussion would also be relevant throughout my essay. Waldby appears a credible source as she draws on the works of other researchers and was referenced many times in other works I came across.

It appears the definition of the human-machine boundary is a topical issue, prompting debates and complications regarding the boundaries of the human body. Sack’s essay [4] offered a useful critique for a discussion of this issue, especially since his article appears in a reputable journal. He highlights the conflicts surrounding the human-machine divide, his argument claiming an unnecessary emphasis is placed on a romanticised perception of what is ‘essential’ about being human. (Human emotion, the soul and ability to have relationships are important as they are un-replicable in machines[5]). Sack contests early Artificial Intelligence skeptics, claiming that the gap between human and machines is continually changing and should not be seen as definitive. He looked at how ethical issues were not previously considered as important when looking at the human-machine relationship. This resonates with the earlier narrative of Frankenstein, highlighting the ethical concerns surrounding my discussion.

As technology advances, it appears the body is increasingly perceived as a limit to human potentials and possibilities- but nonetheless a limit which can be overcome. Angela Thomas’ article [6] provides a specific example of how technology can offer escape from the boundaries of the flesh. Thomas discusses the conclusions of extensive research into an adolescent chatroom, from which she argues cyberspace is the “site for the cultural production of a new type of body”[7]. Her research also prompted questions regarding the ways gender is embedded in technology which were worth noting. I was particularly interested in Thomas’ conclusion that cyberspace is utilised by adolescent girls in an empowering way. Thomas appears well informed regarding the issues she discusses, as I also located other research she has done in this area.

The body, a once essential element of human ontology, appears to becoming increasingly absent within many facets of human experience. This is apparent even in sexual interaction, where one would assume the body is needed. Catherine Waldby’s article [8] looks closely at this issue. Waldby highlights the once sacredness of the body in sexual interactions, in comparison with a physical absence in “electronically mediated communication between partners separated in space”[9]. In particular, Waldby is interested in the how a medium like the internet has become a place for intense eroticism which would be useful in my discussion. The pros and cons of net-sex were also highlighted, Waldby concluding that those who engage in the practice may find it difficult to transfer it to a face to face relationship. This point paralleled with my overriding argument that we must regulate the intersection between human and machine.

It is evident that the body, an inherently human element, is becoming unessential within the formation of relationships. Sherry Turkle’s article [10] would have been a valuable backing source for discussion of this point. Anchored in a historical context, Turkle outlines the developments and changes in child – machine interactions over past decades. Her research highlights technology’s transgression of the once rigid boundaries of ‘dead’ or ‘alive’. In particular I found the section ‘Feelings For Furby’ quite valuable as it highlights the human potential to form bonds with machines due to emotional connection, despite absence of the body. Not only does this highlight the disregard for bodily interaction within a relationship, but society’s changing attitudes towards technology. The article was interesting to read and effective in its use of child case studies.

My final point would have been a discussion of the future for the body within human-machine interactions. Bill Joy’s article [11] provided many great points and examples for such a discussion. He outlines the potential danger of machine replication and the possible replacement of humans with robotic technology, resulting from our increasing reliance on machines. The article was easy to follow, not overly scientific and drew on excellent examples to support Joy’s overriding argument that the human race may become obsolete in favour of machines. Inclusion of Joy’s personal involvement with the technology industry gave him more credibility, as he is clearly not a technophobe. I drew much value from his argument that the real danger facing us is what technology can do in the wrong hands, citing the bombing of Hiroshima as one example. Joy included possible solutions to maintaining a healthy machine-human boundary, making it a useful concluding source.

From my research it is evident that the status of the human body is a highly complicated issue. It appears we have evolved from the technology fearing society we once were to embracing the potential possibilities technology can offer our bodies. However, my research has also evinced the potential danger within increasing human and machine interaction. For it seems there may be a potential for humans to become blinded by the tempting prospects technology offers, perhaps disregarding the originality within the imperfect human body.

[1] Waldby, Catherine. ‘Revenants: The Visible Human Project and the Digital Uncanny’ http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/VID/Uncanny.html (accessed 21 August 2006)
[2] The Visible Human Project
[3] Waldby, Catherine. ‘Revenants: The Visible Human Project and the Digital Uncanny’ http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/VID/Uncanny.html (accessed 21 August 2006) p. 5
[4] Sack, Warren. ‘Artificial Human Nature’, Design Issues (A Critical Condition : Design and Criticism), vol. 13, no. 2, (Summer 1997)
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0747-9360%28199722%2913%3A2%3C55%3AAHN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J (accessed 7 August 2006)
[5] ibid p. 56
[6]Thomas, Angela. ‘Digital Literacies of the Cybergirl’, E-Learning, vol.1 no.3, (2004)
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/viewpdf.asp?j=elea&vol=1&issue=3&year=2004&article=3_Thomas_ELEA_1_3_web&id=129.78.228.114 (accessed 7 August 2006)

[7] Thomas, Angela. ‘Digital Literacies of the Cybergirl’, E-Learning, vol.1 no.3, (2004)
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/viewpdf.asp?j=elea&vol=1&issue=3&year=2004&article=3_Thomas_ELEA_1_3_web&id=129.78.228.114 (accessed 7 August 2006) p. 359
[8] Waldby, Catherine. ‘Circuits of Desire: Internet Erotics and the Problem of Bodily Location’ in R. Diprose, R. Ferrell, L. Secomb & C. Vasseleu (eds) The Politics of Erotics. NY: Routledge (1998) http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/VID/Circuits3.html (accessed 21 August 2006)
[9] Ibid p.1
[10] Turkle, Sherry. ‘Cuddling Up to Cyborg Babies’. The Unesco Courier. Vol. 53, Iss. 9 (Sep 2000)
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=61200789&sid=22&Fmt=4&clientId=20923&RQT=309&VName=PQD (accessed 7 August 2006)
[11] Joy, Bill. ‘Why the future doesn’t need us’, Wired Magazine, Issue 8.04, (April 2000) http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html (accessed 7 August 2006)

Cassandra's Critical Annotated Webliography

2006-08-29T10:17:00.000+08:00

Critical Annotated Webliography

Critically assess the ways in which gender identity is embedded (or not) in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies

Before locating online sources to assist me in answering the above guiding question, I first researched the UWA library catalogue. In doing this, I was able to grasp a few key terms that would help me to refine my search in the direction of the guiding question. The search engine I found to be most useful was Google Scholar as the information was more credible and therefore, more useful from an academic viewpoint.

Bimber’s article discusses a gender gap on the internet. He examines some of the causes for different rates of internet use. The article is useful, as it addresses why men are the predominate users of information and communication technology, suggesting that the internet is “biased towards the interests and styles of men” . Bimber suggests gender is not the only issue to be considered, as the gap is also the product of socioeconomic and other factors . While the internet is the main focus, the article also addresses areas of technology in which women make up the largest percentage of users making a useful connection to ideas of gendered practices. Bimber also provides current statistics from a wide range of credible sources which helped to support his argument.

Nancy Hafkin and Nancy Taggart have placed the focus of their study on the relationship between gender and information technology in developing countries. Hafkin and Taggart examine how IT can be a tool of empowerment for women, economically and socially . They expose, that women in developing countries exhibit a very different use of technology. Though absent from decision making structures, these women use the internet predominantly, for political advocacy . The study provides an interesting comparison between the use of technology by women in the west and women in developing countries. The study makes a good argument to suggest that gender identity is endemic in technology, not only through its use, but also through a series of factors which act as obstacles to women’s access to the technology.

Elizabeth Lawley’s essay examines the way in which categories of gender, once historically defined, are being redefined through the increasing pervasiveness of communication technologies . Rather than focusing on how gender is implicit in technology, Lawley focuses on how definitions of gender will and are changing through the evolving use of technology. Lawley’s stance is in support of moving women into the user community of technology (suggesting that they have been held back from a male-dominated arena) in order to exert a greater influence. This essay was useful as it discussed the possibility of women being transformed, from objects to subjects, through the use of communication technology.

McGerty’s article on gender and the domestic use of the internet examines, like Lawley, gender identity through internet use. In addition, she addresses the notion of identity separation through technology (eg masking ones real gender or race in internet relations) expressing that despite common thought, ones gender on and offline are dependent on one another . This article is useful for looking at the way in which the internet is used in the home, and how domestic use of the internet, reinforces or breaks down traditional ideas of gender roles. McGerty suggests that the impact of Internet use on the gender processes of households (and vice versa) helps us to understand and evaluate gender dynamics . McGerty notes that there is a gender gap relating to internet use, but doesn’t go into detail as to why. However, the article provides a basic understanding of internet use in the home. The specificity of the article makes it much less confusing than other article relating to this topic.

Judy Wacjam’s article takes the view that technology will not reproduce gender hierarchies, but gender relations may be transformed by new technologies . Wacjam views women as agents of change through technology, rather than treating them as passive victims . Her article helped me to gain a balance of opinion on the guiding question “interpretive flexibility’ which refers to the way in which different groups of people involved with technology can have very different understandings of that technology .

My last source is taken from UNESCO.org . The site proved useful for providing contemporary information on how women are beginning to be provided with equitable opportunities in the communication and information technologies. While the site did not provide a lot of literature on the subject, it did contain some of the main objectives UNESCO is working on internationally. The site promotes gender equality in the media and equal access to technology, as well as the desire that both women and men’s interests be prioritised through media coverage . I used UNESCO as an example of an organisation that was not just stating what needed to be done, but actively pursuing gender equality in technology, for women around the world.

In conclusion, my essay will constitute four main points, in attempting to answer the guiding question. First, I will examine why technology has seen the subordination of women, both in its design and in its use. Second, I will look at gender and technology in developing countries and how this differs from Western technology developments, by looking at the way in which the technology is used by women in developing countries. I will also look at the domestic use of the internet and how such technology in the home reinforces or recreates gender roles. Lastly, I will examine the various factors that influence why men and women use different types and amounts of technology, what this has to say about gender constructions and what organisations are in place to combat this type of gender inequality.

Bibliography

Bimber, Bruce, “Measuring the Gender Gap on the Internet”
http://www.personal.si.umich.edu/~rfrost/courses/SI110/readings/DigiDivide/Bimber_on_DigiDivide.pdf, September 2000, accessed 22 August 2006.

Hafkin, Nancy, Taggart, Nancy, “Gender, Information Technology, and Developing Countries: An Analytic Study” http://www.mujeresenred.net/zonaTIC/IMG/pdf/Gender_Book_NoPhotos.pdf, June 2001, accessed 23 August, 2003.

Lawley, Elizabeth L., “Computers and the Communication of Gender” http:///www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html, April 1993, accessed August 23, 2006.

McGerry, Lisa-Jane, ‘“Nobody Lives Only In Cyberspace”: Gendered Subjectivities and Domestic Use of the Internet’ http://hive.library.uwa.edu.au/cgibin/hive/hive.cgi/19597.pdf?HIVE_REF=hii%3A19597&HIVE_RET=ORG&HIVE_REQ=2114&HIVE_PROD=0/19597.pdf, accessed August 23, 2006.

UNESCO Publishing, ‘Science, Technology and Engineering’ and ‘Resources in Communication, information technologies and the media’, (2005) http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-UR_ID=11593%URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html, (accessed 26 August, 2006).

Wajcman, Judy, “Reflections on Gender and Technology Studies: In What State is the Art?” http://links.jstor.org/sici=0306%28200006%2930%3A3%3C447%3AROGATS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 , June 2000, accessed 22 August 2006.

Talya's Webliography

2006-08-28T23:25:00.000+08:00

“From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to human.” Discuss critically.

Upon deciding on the question, the first resource I decided that would be necessary was a copy of the text. The first result I obtained was a website that contained Frankenstein, including the prologue. A few random comparisons from the Internet text to my own copy at home indicate this is indeed an accurate resource. It is very convenient to have the book as an online resource, but it is really only useful to find the context of certain quotes, as naturally the novel cannot discuss the issues it has raised itself over the last two centuries.

I have heard that for many people, the free encyclopaedia Wikipedia is the first stop for information. Although it is an unedited source, to which anyone can freely contribute, I thought it worth at least a passing mention. Unfortunately, and quite frankly unsurprisingly, Wikipedia’s page on Frankenstein was very unhelpful as a resource. Other than a passing mention of the creation of life, the concept of human identity and limitation was not raised.

I also accessed Wikipedia’s article on the Visible Human Project. Once again, the information was scanty, and of doubtful aid in answering the essay question I chose. Despite its popularity and ease of access, I would not consider Wikipedia a good resource, as it would not be appropriate for an essay at university level.

Next, I tried to explore the other limit of the question, the Visible Human Project (VHP) from a more reliable source. I found that the website clearly stated the goals of the project, but did not mention much about the VHP in terms of digital personhood. The information actually seemed a little scanty, what was present seemed more about promoting subscription to their service than the project itself. Nonetheless, I felt that the original goals of the project were an important consideration when discussing intentional reinterpretation of what it means to be human.

Ras Steyn’s thesis on body modification and art provided useful information in the form of definitions and concepts of identity, humanism and post-humanism of which I personally was not aware. Although I did not consider the focus on art exactly useful, the concepts of changing concepts of body and identity expressed in the art were very useful. Steyn wrote this thesis as a qualification for a Magister Technologiae in Fine Arts (equivalent to a Master’s degree) for the Tshwane University in South Africa. I therefore consider it to be a very reliable source of information, but it was very long (151 pages), and I found it very difficult to read any more than the introduction.

Knowing Catherine Waldby already from our tutorial readings, I was unsurprised to find her article on the VHP very useful. However, I felt that Waldby spoke from a position that was much more informed than my own, and I thus found myself a bit confused by the many detailed terms used, for which she mostly did not provide definitions. I consider that the location of this article in the archives of the Centre for Research in Culture and Communications at the Murdoch University School of Humanities means that it has an authority above that of Waldby’s authorship, implied by the centre’s critical selection of the article.

I found Margarete Sandelowski’s article on the changes in nursing and medical care being brought about by new technology an interesting counterpoint to Waldby’s view on the medical application of new technology. Although the frequent use of quotations was somewhat off-putting, I found the article easy to read and understand, as it was relatively free of jargon. I felt that the different ideas of ‘what it means to be human’ were neglected in favour of a focus on the effect the presence or absence of embodiment can have in medical care. The location of the article in Advances in Nursing Science further explains this medical focus, but I think it also makes it a more reliable resource, as that means that it has been subjected to peer review and criticism before publishing. I found this article using both the UWA library database and Medline, which indicates that the journal is quite highly regarded.

Comroe’s article comparing Frankenstein’s monster to genetic engineering also provides a defence of medical advances. Unfortunately, Comroe’s article was quite short, and dealt equally with a couple of other literary concepts but I felt this brevity made it easier to read. However, I have some doubt to the value of this article as a reference for my ‘essay’, as it was originally published in 1975, when the technology (both computerised and genetic) was not as far advanced as it is now. There are probably more recent references that consider the same ideas from a more valuable context.

I found Stuart Murray’s critique of Catherine Waldby to be very useful. I felt that he provided a far better insight into how the VHP affects ‘what it means to be human’. I also found Murray’s style of writing very easy to follow and his presentation of the issues straightforward. On further exploration of the resource, I discovered that this article was actually a review essay on Waldby’s book The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine on an edited online ‘Culture Studies Community’. I this may devalue the article as a resource, but I felt that it provided me with a better understanding of the concepts Waldby would have been dealing with (as I mentioned earlier, I find her writing somewhat beyond my understanding) and raised issues I might not have considered myself. Although no information on Murray himself was provided, further investigation revealed he is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto, currently researching posthuman life .

Finally, I considered Manuela Rossini’s speech (available online) on definitions of humanity in science fiction – what the future may hold for our conceptions of ‘what it means to be human’. Her speech was illuminating, and its conversational style made it very easy to follow. I feel Rossini’s concentration on the gender binary means that there are many other areas of interest that weren’t considered, but this emphasis is understandable from the context, given that the speech was presented to the European Feminist Research Conference. I consider Dr. Rossini to be an authoritative voice on this issue, as she has degrees from many prominent universities across Europe and is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Amsterdam University .

Amy's Webliography

2006-08-28T22:29:00.000+08:00

From Frankenstein to the Visible Human Project, the body is continually reinterpreted as a limit to what it means to be human.

My research initially started with Donna Haraway. As a predominant figure in this research, I thought it essential to include her work. From there, I moved to the two examples listed in the direction: Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and the Visible Human Project. The articles I found gave way to other related discourses, most notably the Human Genome Project and other medical advancements.

Andy Miah's article argues for a social and philosophical framework that supports transhumanism—modifications of the body by technological advances. He examines whether or not technology enhances the existing body in three primary ways relevant to the proposed essay: medical advancements, plastic surgery and sport. In his discussion, he continually finds that in all cases technology is used beneficially for human enhancement. His views are relevant because they involve current technology and the recent publication date assures a modern interpretation. Miah is a credible authority; he is a lecturer at the University of Paisley and has written frequently on the topic. However, his bias towards the preference of technology is blatant, and he shares little of the concern for new technology shared by other sources.

Allbritton’s article is unique to this selection of sources because it originates from the Associated Press Newswire, not from a scholarly journal or a technology-centric blog. However, the article is almost perfectly suited to the current discussion as it examines the historical developments leading to the ever-pressing future of complete integration between human and machine. Descartes, Shelley, Haraway, “Star Trek” and “The Terminator” are linked as key contributors to the cyborg identity. The ultimate concern of the article is how modern technological developments considerably affect the human body, especially with wearable personal computers that connect an individual to all the information in the world. As our bodies become more hybridized through technological advances, they are also viewed as customizable through the recent developments in the Human Genome Project, which could potentially change the notion of ‘human’ radically. Ultimately, Allbritton concludes with apprehension that technological and biological advances will change our ability and desire to transcend the biological body, questioning what we define as ‘human.’

Knoppers' short, yet well-researched, article is interesting in its application to ethical and moral issues raised by the Human Genome Project. It lists the limitations and protections that countries have put in place to guard and uphold certain human characteristics or qualities. Interestingly, autonomy is the first principle listed, almost declaring one of the more fundamental aspects of being a human. The article takes a cautious tone and warns of the advances of technology; we must find our human borders and maintain them through human legislation based on what we have philosophically decided makes us human. It describes the conflict between what technology and medicine can do, and what we want it to do.

Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” is essential to any modern analytical reading of the relationship between bodies, technology and ‘humanness’. Besides being a primary reference for most articles on this topic, her manifesto was the pioneer work in evaluating human bodies along with technology. The leading strength of being the initial theorist and establishing figure in the discussion of human and cyborg identity also causes the greatest misfortune; at the time of writing in 1984, Haraway had not experienced all the innovations discussed in this paper. The Human Genome Project was developed six years later, and the Visible Human Project was still eight years from being realized. While unfortunate, this does not detract from the value of the essay; rather, it is used as a background and essential theory used to examine the human body and relate it to the definition of human.

Eugene Thacker’s article situates the Visible Human Project in an anatomical-historical context and examines the implications of creating a virtual human body that we access through information archives. The history of anatomy is particularly significant as he weighs the social and philosophical implications of the modern change; originally, anatomists understood the body as a grouping of systems that coordinated with each other biologically, but now the body is broken into cross-sections that easily facilitate digital processing and structuring. Although aware and cautious of the sudden change to an anachronistic understanding of the body, the article is credible. It is supported by over fifteen sources, and at the time of print, Thacker was a professor of technology and culture at Rutgers University, working on a dissertation about the techno-scientific body.

This interview with Ramez Naam is published on the blog NuSapiens, which is dedicated to examining the interplay between humans and technology. Ramez Naam is the author of the recently published book More Than Human, which supports the ways technology changes and enhances bodies. The interview has interesting implications for the proposed essay; in reference to medicinal drugs, Naam says we must understand that people who are not prescribed the drugs (such as steroids) will use new technology and medicine to enhance themselves, regardless if that was the intended use. This acknowledges an ethical dilemma between the intention of body-enhancing medicine and its actual use.

The research led me to an analysis of various relationships between the body, technology and definitions of ‘human.’ The question that ultimately propelled me focused on humanity: at what point does the body transgress the limit of what it means to human? I would explore this question in relation to medical research, drugs and human ethics.

Bibliography

Andy Miah, “Be Very Afraid: Athletes, Transhuman Ideals and Posthumanity”, in Journal of Evolution and Technology, 13.2, (October 2003). http://www.jetpress.org/volume13/miah.html (accessed 26 August 2006).

Chris Allbritton, “Cyborg Future Looming,” 8 June 1998). http://bradleyrhodes.com/Cached/ap-1998-06-08.html (accessed 31 August 2006).

Bartha Maria Knoppers and Ruth Chadwi, “The Human Genome Project: Under an International Ethical Microscope” in Science 265 (30 September 1994) p. 2035-2036. http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/genomes/265-5181-2035.pdf (accessed 31 August 2006).

Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century”, in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (1991), p.149-181. http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html (accessed 14 August 2006).

Eugene Thacker, “…/visible_human.html/digital anatomy and the hyper-texted body”, in CTHEORY.net (June 2, 1998). http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=103 (accessed 28 August 2006).

NuSapiens, “NuSapiens Exclusive: Interview with Ramez Naam”, (11 March 2005). http://nusapiens.blogspot.com/2005/03/nusapiens-exclusive-interview-with.html (accessed 22 August 2006).

Sally's Webliography

2006-08-28T21:41:00.000+08:00

Guiding Question 3: Critically assess the ways in which gender identity is embedded (or not) in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies.

Introduction:
In order to find the following articles I completed several searches on Google Scholar using key terms found in the guiding essay question, such as ‘gender identity, technology’, ‘gender identity, cultural construction’ and ‘gender identity, cultural construction, communication technologies’. This proved to be more successful than using the general Google website . From this starting point I filtered through the articles to find those accessible, for example not locked into subscribed journals, and from there I found those that were most applicable to the question.

Webliography:
The article found written by Mark Poster showed to be one that would be fairly useful in regards to conceptualizing how gender identity relates to information and communication technologies. The section which is the most helpful is entitled ‘Gender and Virtual Communities’. The article would prove most useful as acting as background knowledge for how a person’s gender is not something that necessarily needs to be involved with their interactions with these technologies, with particular reference to the internet. Poster’s article is useful in highlighting how gender relations cross the technology boundary and how sexual discrimination can still occur. Despite the ways in which this article would be useful for background knowledge on gendered identities and the internet, it would not be able to be used to provide substantial research for the essay question, however, it does mention some other articles and books that could be of use.

Susan Herring’s article is well written and full of resources, which conveys that it is a well researched article engaging with how gender power relations relate to communication in regards to the internet. It is useful for looking at a history of women’s involvement with the World Wide Web. This article could more than likely supply a fair amount of information for this essay question if the writer was to focus on the differences between male and female gendered identities which are embedded in society’s construction of information and communication technologies, especially if it was in regards to the internet, and in particular online communication on the internet. The only downside of this article is that it is influenced very much by a feminist perspective, so the reader ought to read it taking this into account.

The article by Huffaker and Calvert would be useful to a certain extent. Whilst it contains some useful background information about identity, it is not all applicable to ideas concerning gender. The positive points of the article are that it uses research about blogging in order to explore ideas about how each gender utilises the concept. It is also interesting to read about how certain aspects of the internet can become gendered functions, for example the usage of emoticons. This article would be best used in the form of examples about how a gendered identity can become embedded in the cultural construction of blogging technology. The examples used would also reflect current ideas, because the article has been dated as only being published in 2005, making them relevant to the discussion and not outdated. Due to the fact that the article contains thorough research on adolescents, and that theory has been applied to this research, one can assume that it is a reliable resource.

Lee’s article is very readable and the points made are made clearly. It raises interesting and useful points in regards to how instant messaging is a communication technology where the interaction between male and female participants reflects ideas of an embedded cultural construction of a gendered identity. It would be a useful article to take examples from in order to convey the idea that gendered identity is embedded in the cultural construction of instant messaging. The only concern with this article is that the research conducted by the author was not extensive, so the reliability of the results is unknown and shouldn’t be used without being questioned.

The Miller and Arnold article looks at identity in relation to information technology that appears in the form of web pages on the internet. It is an interesting article because it looks at the relationship between online identities and that identity in ‘real’ life. It raises ideas which would be useful to consider in the essay, such as the boundaries placed on a gendered identity through the cultural construction of information and communication technologies. The negative point of the article is that it is quite lengthy and not all of it is applicable to the essay question, so a lot of sorting through of information is required. The study of gendered differences in personal websites, however, is a valuable section.

Bimber’s article looks at the inequality between male and female presence on the internet. It is reasonably useful because it inspects the relationship between gender inequalities of internet usage and gender inequalities in the consumption of other forms of media and other aspects of life. For example, the way in which it looks at how sex differences affect the construction of relationships can be related also to internet use. The downfall of this article is that the research data used has been taken most recently from 1999, which was seven years ago and in terms of technology this could be considered outdated. This article would be most useful in the essay to be used to provide some examples of how information and communication technologies, in particular reference to the internet, have notions of gender identity that have been embedded through their cultural construction.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, I found a number of articles which would all be useful in some way if I were to construct an argument in response to the question. The main argument I would make from such sources would be along the lines of that gender identity is embedded in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies in a number of ways including through the use of instant messaging, blogging and the establishment of personal sites. Due to the articles I found I would limit my discussion to gender identity in regards to the internet and how gender relations in real life can be translated to cyber culture.

Bibliography

Bimber, Bruce. ‘Measuring the Gender Gap on the Internet’, Social Science Quarterly, 81.03, (September 2000) <http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~rfrost/courses/SI110/readings/DigiDivide/Bimber_on_DigiDivide.pdf> (accessed 26/8/06)

Herring, Susan C. ‘Gender and Power in Online Communication’, Indiana University, (October 2001) <http://rkcsi.indiana.edu/archive/CSI/WP/WP01-05B.html>, (accessed 26/08/06)

Huffaker, David A. and Calvert, Sandra L. ‘Gender, Identity and Language Use in Teenage Blogs’, Georgetown University, (2005) <http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/huffaker.html>, (accessed 26/8/06)

Lee, Christine. ‘How Does Instant Messaging Affect Interaction Between The Genders?’, The Mercury Project for Instant Messaging Studies, Stanford University, <http://www.stanford.edu/class/pwr3-25/group2/pdfs/IM_Genders.pdf>, (accessed 26/8/06)

Miller, Hugh and Arnold, Jill. ‘Self in Web Home Pages: Gender, Identity and Power in Cyberspace’, IOS Press, (2001) <http://www.vepsy.com/communication/book2/2SECTIO_05.PDF>, (accessed 26/8/06)

Poster, Mark. ‘CyberDemocracy: Internet and the Public Sphere’, University of California, (1995) <http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mposter/writings/democ.html>, (accessed 26/08/06)

Jen's Webliography

2006-08-28T20:27:00.000+08:00

3. Critically assess the ways in which gender identity is embedded (or not) in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies.

I started my research with major search engine Google using the keyword string 'gender identity technology'. The search string was broad enough to return a lot of results, while being specific enough that the links it returned were either articles of interest, or webpages that linked to articles of interest. Once I had a decent selection of articles, I assessed each article for validity, taking into account the general appearance and credibility of the sites as well as the references the articles cited.

The first, the best-known, and perhaps the ultimate in technological feminist theory, Donna Haraway's 'The Cyborg Manifesto' sparked huge debate when it was first published and virtually launched single-handedly the cyberfeminism movement as we know it today. Haraway, of course, argues that gender identity is embedded irrevocably within information technologies, and more interestingly, that culturally constructed technology is embedded within our gendered identities, both digitally and in the real world. She goes on to redefine our traditional notions of identity to include these points of view. I would use her article to answer the question inherent within the essay question itself, as her essay overwhelmingly confirms that gender identity is embedded in the cultural construction of technology.

Becky Michele Mulvaney in her article 'Gender Differences in Communication: An Intercultural Experience' argues that gender is inextricably tied up with communication, and that gender communication and cultural communication can in fact be viewed as the same thing. She observes that different genders observe and are taught different communication practices, and I would use this in my essay as an argument to confirm and tighten links between gender identity (because the way we speak is a central part of who we are) and the cultural construction of communication.

Following on from Mulvaney's paper regarding gender and communication in general, Hoai-An Truong's article 'Gender Issues in Online Communications' discusses the more technological issue of online communication. For many, the cultural construction of the users of technology is that they are male and fit a certain age category. The assumption that almost every digitised person you meet online is male is also widely shared. Truong's article brings to light some of the issues faced by women as they attempt to establish their digital identities, and how their femininity seems to 'follow' them online. As the article reinforces the central point of my theoretical essay, it would be very useful to use in illustrating said point.

The paper by Lisa Nakamura, 'After/Images of Identity: Gender, Technology, and Identity Politics' provides an interesting counterpoint. Despite making reference to Haraway's notion of a cyborg at one point, the article is actually arguing against what would be the central argument of my hypothetical essay. Nakamura argues that the act of creating a digital self frees the technological user from issues of self, including gender, and that such issues of identity are present only as 'after-images', hazy reflections that cannot really be grasped. I would use Nakamura's article to illustrate the opposing point of view to my central argument, that gender identity isn't embedded in the cultural construction of technologies, but ultimately disagree with its main theme. Nakamura argues that you can leave the self behind; I would argue that no matter how digitised we become, the core essentials of self remain.

As soon as I saw that Elizabeth Lane Lawley’s article ‘Computers and the Communication of Gender’ opened with a quote from Donna Haraway’s work, I knew it was going to relevant for my essay. In her paper, Lawley discusses the impact communication technologies have on gender categories, much like Haraway’s work, but focuses mainly on what she calls ‘computer-mediated communication’. This would include both email and posting on message boards as well as instant messaging and chatrooms – any form of communication mediated by a computer would be fair game. She also examines how shifting identities in the digital world (particularly the shifting of women’s’ identities), are causing people to take a second look at the cultural constructions of technology in society. Her article, then, would provide a slightly different take on the main point of my essay, while still supporting the thrust of my argument.

The last article I found was ‘Marketing masculinity: gender identity and popular magazines’ by Anthony J. Vigorito and Timothy J. Curry. The authors make an excellent point in their first paragraph in that there isn’t a lot of examination of masculine identity in media – there is a huge emphasis on femininity and the female self, but I had a lot of trouble locating gender studies that focused primarily on the male gender. Although the paper doesn’t deal specifically with what I would normally classify ‘technology’, confining itself mainly to popular magazines, I think that it would definitely be relevant to my hypothetical essay. I would spend a short time arguing that magazines did fall under the broad category of information and communication technologies, especially with the current trend into mirroring magazines and newspapers online, before moving on with the masculine perspective for my main argument.

I think gender identity is inextricably linked with a person’s digital self. In my hypothetical essay, I would argue that no matter how virtual someone becomes, the essence of who they are, which includes their gender, remains. In this manner, I would then argue that gender identity is definitely embedded in the cultural construction of information and communication technologies, using the articles I have selected to enforce this point with examples from both the feminist and masculine perspectives. I would conclude that even were we to completely transcend our physical form and become truly digitised, our gender identity, which is inseparably bound up in our sense of self, would remain.

Bibliography

Curry, Timothy J. and Vigorito, Anthony J., ‘Marketing masculinity: gender identity and popular magazines’, http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_n1-2_v39/ai_21136466, 1998, (accessed online 27 August 2006).

Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York; Routledge, 1991), pp.149-181 (available online http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html, accessed 27 August 2006).

‘Google’ http://www.google.com, (accessed 27 August 2006).

Lawley, Elizabeth Lane, ‘Computers and the Communication of Gender’, http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html, 1993, (accessed 27 August 2006).

Mulvaney, Becky Michele, ‘Gender Differences in Communication: An Intercultural Experience’, http://feminism.eserver.org/gender/cyberspace/gender-differences.txt, 1994, (accessed 27 August 2006).

Nakamura, Lisa, 'After/Images of Identity: Gender, Technology, and Identity Politics', http://www.educ.sfu.ca/gentech/Nakamura.html, 1998, (accessed 27 August 2006).

Truong, Hoai-An, ‘Gender Issues in Online Communication’, http://feminism.eserver.org/gender-issues-online.txt, 1993, (accessed 27 August 2006).

Rebecca's Webliography

2006-08-28T09:52:00.000+08:00

Women’s Studies 2205: Identity in the Digital Age
Assessment 1: Webliography
Rebecca Kerr

Critically asses Donna Haraway’s assertion that ‘By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorised and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism. In short we are all cyborgs’.

Biocca, F.
‘The Cyborgs Dilemma: Embodiment in Virtual Environments’[1]

This article was probably the least related to the direct topic at hand. However it presented some very provocative thoughts. I liked the way the author addresses an issue that no one else to date has: the effect the virtual has on the mind. As we move towards society filed with ‘cyborgs’ as Harraway suggests what are the possible implications when we give up our physical world for the virtual one. From a scientific perspective it proved to be a very interesting read. The argument is strongly supported by statistics that prove how our physical both sufferers and benefits from our virtual obsessions. It also had some specific arguments pertaining to the cyborg debate. This article offered ideas that no other articles presented.

Devoss, D.
‘Rereading Cyborg(?) Women: The Visual Rhetoric of Images of Cyborg (and Cyber) Bodies on the World Wide Web’[2]

Donna Haraway is considered perhaps one of the greatest writers on the mechanics of feminism. Her works although great, lack understandable explanations. In understanding Haraway’s works it is easier to look at the critiques that others have written rather than Haraway’s own Manifesto for Cyborgs[3]. Written from a female perspective this articles main focus is on the cyborg figure that appears in Haraways writings. Devoss has followed on with the feminist theories presented and debates the issue of gender discourse. This article uses dichotomies to explain how we have become cyborgs; we can be female and technological literate. As well as providing the most comprehensive definition of a cyborg, this article goes further by including and explaining all the elements involved in the cyborg body. This articles strongest element is that it consistently refers back to Haraways work whilst still using other sources and articles to strengthen her definitions. This article also presented an interesting concept that I had not though of before: the idea that “visual representation of the cyborg do exist”[4]. Another important distinction this author makes is to differentiate between what is cyborg and what is cyber[5]; this is something that often becomes blurred in the cyborg debate. What I liked most about this article is that it did not replicate Haraways writing but sought to further investigate the ideas her manifesto proposed in its own style.

Graham, E.
‘Cyborgs or Goddesses: becoming divine in a cyber feminist age’[6]

The lines between what is feminist and what is technological continue to be blurred. Dichotomies within society are continuingly being influence by changes with technology. These technologies change how we see the world. This is an important aspect of why we can be described as cyborgs. As the title depicts this article also delves into the goddess as a feature of Haraways writing which claims a division between the ‘perfect’ goddess and the ‘imperfect’ cyborg. It has been argued by some that the ideas of feminist theory started to die in the beginning of the new millennium but this article addresses many feminist issues which are still very relevant today. However Elaine Graham’s article is mostly a critique of what Haraway has already written and although some of Haraways ideas are explored in more depth in this article it didn’t really use any new evidence to support her argument.

Kull, A.
‘Cyborg as an Interpretation of Culture-Nature’[7]

As the title suggests this article’s main focus is of nature and technological balance in today’s society. Kull argues that the cyborg is the means by which we have begun to challenge nature.[8] The author makes an interesting proposition when she claims that the cyborg is a ‘culture-nature’ representation that we have created to represent our time.[9] I think this is a very intriguing argument. In our time we see the cyborg as a representation of our technological selves and I like how this author challenged the idea that we will think this way forever. The article also emphasis a point that Haraway made that is important that we continue to shape our ‘cyborg’ selves but we do so with both human and virtual influences.[10] This article provides some interesting thoughts but overall strays from the topic because much of the article is spent focusing on defining nature, probably the most undefinable term existing.

Morahan-Martin, J.
‘Women and the Internet: Promise and Perils’[11]

Many interesting ideas can be challenged with the theories of the cyborg feminist. It goes beyond simple ideas and definitions we use to define ourselves. There is no real answer to the questions relating to the feminine but this article does the greatest job of explaining the terms of the feminist argument. This article is very feminist focused. The author is less specific in her area of discussion, talking more about the feminist ramifications of the World Wide Web in general rather than the more specific cyborg issue. Although not specific this article still had some very relevant base information. The sub topic of the argument outlines the issue of communication and equality on the internet. I like the feminist perspective of this article. It opened my eyes to other factors which effecting women using technology. These issues are still very relevant because the cyborg is based on similar ideas of women and technology. Morahan-Martin provides an alternative argument to the standard cyborg issues. She aims to remind us that no one can live totally in cyberspace.

Suden, J.
‘What Happened to Difference in Cyberspace? The return of the cyborg’[12]

Defining gender is a large part of what describes a cyborg. This article flows on from the arguments presented in Haraways article a Manifesto for Cyborgs[13]. However in this article the terms are defined more clearly and explained in greater more comprehensive detail. The most paramount features of this article are how it breaks down Harways writings. Direct quotes from Harways manifesto make understanding her intended meanings a lot easier. It also ties other related subjects in the ‘cyberfeminist’[14] ideas such as the impacts of cyberpunk. This article also looks more broadly at the issues at hand and details the ‘cyberfeminist’ ideology, which has proven to be great base knowledge when looking at other sources of information. Overall this article was the most interesting read and made the cyborg issue very interesting to the average person.

Words: 1093 words

[1] Frank Biocca, “The Cyborgs Dilemma: Embodiment in Virtual Environments”, IEEE, vol.1 no. 1, (1997) pp. 12-26. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel3/4870/13444/00617676.pdf?isnumber=&arnumber=617676 [accessed 16/8/06]
[2] Danielle Devoss, “Rereading Cyborg(?) Women: The Visual Rhetoric of Images of Cyborg (and Cyber) Bodies on the World Wide Web”, Cyber Psychology and Behavior, vol.3 no. 5, (2000) pp. 835-845. http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/10949310050191818 [accessed 19/8/06]
[3] Donna Haraway, ‘A Manifesto for Cyborgs: science, technology and social feminism in 1980’s’,The Haraway Reader, (New York and London: Routledge, 2003)
[4] ibid pp.836
[5] ibid pp.838
[6] Elaine Graham, “Cyborgs of Goddesses: becoming Divine in the Cyberfeminist Age”, Information, Communication and Society, vol. 2 no.4, (1999) pp. 419-438 http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/media/5hyy105mrm5www41nq96/contributions/h/c/n/2/hcn24tyqw58tnmvn.pdf . [accessed 14/8/06]
[7] Anne Kull, “Cyborg as an Interpretation of Culture-Nature”, Zygon, vol. 36 no. 1 (2001) pp. 49-56. http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1111/0591-2385.00339/abs/ [accessed 17/8/06]
[8] ibid pp.50
[9] ibid pp.51
[10] ibid pp.54
[11] Janet Morahan-Martin, “Women and the Internet: Promise and Perils”, Cyber Psychology and Behavior, vol.3 no. 5, (2000) pp. 683-691. http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/10949310050191683 [accessed 21/8/06]
[12] Jenny Sunden, “What Happened to Difference in Cyberspace? The return of the cyborg”, Feminist Studies, vol. 1 no. 2, (2001) pp. 215-232. http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/media/ [accessed 21/8/06]
[13] Haraway Manifesto for Cyborgs
[14] ibid pp.218

hypertext for webliographies

2006-08-22T19:19:00.000+08:00

With the webliographies when we put them online we are supposed to hyperlink the sites that we took the sources from. I don’t usually footnote the full http site because they are so long and full of lots of characters so I usually shorten it to the main site. Should I shorten my sources or just put them up as the full address as given at the top of the site???

Experiment

2006-08-20T00:54:00.000+08:00

Hi, it is Vivan again. i just try to post the message with photo, thank you for Vel'ithya about teaching me how to post the pic!! ^u^

This photo was taken in Perth Zoo...

Hi

2006-08-18T10:09:00.000+08:00

Hey...

How's it going? My name's Amy, and I'm a third year/second year/junior communication and philosophy double major. I'm only here for the semester, but I am originally from the States... so sorry about the date and the fact that no one votes. Win some, lose some. Right, so my favorite web page is probably addictinggames.com it's basically amazing and a complete waste of time. I'll see ya around.

Isn't it great when procrastination is also uni work?

2006-08-18T00:37:00.000+08:00

Do you guys think the communication issues we've been discussing in the tutorials are dealt with by/in this comic?

Webliographies

2006-08-17T16:32:00.000+08:00

Hi all,
Just wanted to clarify the requirements for your first assignment, the webliography.
Because this is a webliography, all components of the bibliography must be available online. This means that they should have a url that you can directly link to when you put your webliography on this weblog. This means that conventional academic journal articles that you access through JSTOR or Supersearch can generally NOT be used, because the user has to go through a process of authentification through the library. Don’t dismay, however, as there are many online academic journals, and e-books as well. The Faculty of Arts even has 2! Limina, and Outskirts (in which Tama published his paper on the Borg in Star Trek).
The point is for you to be research savvy online, and also to make that research accessible to everyone else reading the blog.
So, think about the forum in which you’re writing (a publicly available blog, and as an item for assessment), as well as the unit outcomes being assessed, namely:

Develop and expand critical research skills through a deepened understanding and familiarity with both online sources and conventional print sources

Express research findings and ideas logically, coherently and convincingly in both oral and written forms, the latter in both print and digital formats

Develop a critical, annotated Webliography.

And don’t forget that you get to comment on 2 people’s Webliogs, and yours may well be commented on too – so make it engaging!
All the best!
Alison

Discrimination against Australians

2006-08-16T21:18:00.000+08:00

I was just filling out my profile, and they asked for my birthdate. So I put it in, then checked to see what how my profile looked. Very surprised to be told I was a Scorpio who hadn't turned 21 yet, I checked it again. The damn thing wanted it put in month first. Is there anywhere except America where the day's after the month? Does anyone else find it irritating?

Wired Self III Lecture Links

2006-08-16T12:40:00.000+08:00

Hello Self.Netizens. As I promised, I've put up a blog post with all the links I mentioned in today's lecture here: The Wired Self III: The Wired Everyday - Weblogs. There may be other posts of use/interest (or perhaps procrastination value) in my blog as well, so feel free to explore.

Happy blogging!

FOR THE HORDE

2006-08-15T14:20:00.000+08:00

Sup everyone. I'm Jen, and I talk a lot in the tute. I have a funny display name because I already had an account on Blogger. I shifted across to Livejournal back in 2004 so my old blog is non-functional (well, not being updated anymore, anyway).

<-- This is me and my boyfriend in the University Computer Club (UCC for short). Like you might expect of a computer club most of the members are males but there are two girls (one of whom is me) on the committee of the club.

The first thing I do when I wake up is turn on my computer and check my email and my World of Warcraft Guild's forums, so I guess you could say that I'm kind of tech-savvy. I tend to use internet slang a lot in my normal speech and I get twitchy when I'm away from the computer for too long (although that's measured in terms of days rather than minutes or hours okay).

Links wise, this is a really funny (and safe for work) video that everyone should watch. I also think that mordots.com is hilarious and I almost cried the first time I heard it, but unless you play World of Warcraft or know a little bit about WoW then you probably won't really get it.

Uh... yeah, that's about it. <3

hihi everyone!!

2006-08-15T13:36:00.000+08:00

Halo! I am Vivan Chan, my favourite website is Commerical Radio of Hong Kong, I usually go there and listen to the radio program of Hong Kong. therefore, I can keep in touch with the recent issues and latest pop song in Hong Kong, hahaha!! q^v^p!!

Moreover, i have a blog, you all are welcome to take a look!! .........if you understand chinese.....
the site is www.xanga.com/cwyvan

g'day bloggers

2006-08-15T13:30:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone,

I don't really have a favourite website, as I do not use the internet for fun, or any other leisure activities. But the site I hold in the highest regard, is good old google.com It never fails me in an emergency.

Happy blogging everyone,

Hayley

Blogging high..

2006-08-15T13:24:00.000+08:00

Hi guys. I'm Lisa, doing 2nd year Communication Studies, majoring in Asian studies. I'm a self-confessed blogger...but my site will remain undisclosed..mwahahaha.

I don't go looking up sites much..soo it's a bit hard for me..but I used to be a regular to Solid07. Mostly visited the forums, that is.

Anyways..hope to read some of your posts soon. Laterz!

Snowman in progress...

2006-08-14T20:25:00.000+08:00

This marks the beginning of a work of art. Unfortunately I don't have a digital copy of the masterpiece snowman I made, so I'll have to find it and post it later. Stay tuned for le finale.

Hellooooo

2006-08-14T20:23:00.000+08:00

*waves* Hi, Talya here. Um, I don't really have a favourite website, but one of the one's I've enjoyed the most over the years is Book-a-minute, it's pretty funny. Looking forward to reading everyone's contributions!

I'll have a blog on toast please...

2006-08-14T15:34:00.000+08:00

Hey there my favourite tutorial buddies.
Look how familiar I can be in this 'virtual' space, when I don't know any of you from a bar of soap! Ah the unitng medium that is the internet.
My most frequented website is probably (and embarrassingly) Ebay, where i spend the majority of my centrelink payments each fortnight, whereas my favourite website would have to be the Fat Pie website as it has lots of funny film clips such as the story of Salad Fingers (seriously check it out).
Happy Bogging! (woops)
Jasmine x

And then there was me.

2006-08-14T15:33:00.000+08:00

Hej. I'm Courtney, Linguistics student...the one currently up the back of the lab in the quasi tutu. My favourite website would have to be the ever controversial UnPop Art. Make of it (and me in turn, I guess) what you will.

Thoughts on Blogging

2006-08-14T13:36:00.000+08:00

It will be interesting to see how smoothly virtual discussions run. Im an msn user, and sometimes i really appreciate the "space" that online discussions allow, in terms of opening up time to gather the thoughts. Also, there is the convienience of being able to gain any needed information at the click of a button. Another bonus is the availability of a continous record of exactly what is being said at each stage of the conversation.. which im sure will come in handy during discussions, especially heated ones, as i have found on msn :p

Anyhoo, im just wasting time, so ill go now. Nice to meet you all so far, looking forward to lots of posting fun.

Justine

Hey!

2006-08-14T13:26:00.002+08:00

Hey!

My name is Steph. I am a journalism and law student. My favourite website, asides from all my email accounts, is Ticketek... I love going to concerts, plays, festivals, comedy shows, and generally knowing what is going on.

Steph...

Hello chaps

2006-08-14T13:26:00.001+08:00

Afternoon all, and hello to everyone in my tutorial group! My name is Cassandra and I would have to say that my favourite web site would have to be hotmail.com, purely because it's the only one I check every day!

La Premier Post

2006-08-14T13:26:00.000+08:00

Viva la Blog Post

Yay Blogalicious!

2006-08-14T13:15:00.002+08:00

mmmm bloggy

Welcome to my trial blog, let me tell you, im having the time of my life right now :)
But seriously, i reckon this will be quite the fun!

Justine

about me

2006-08-14T13:15:00.001+08:00

Hi,
My name is Rebecca I am in this tutorial obviously. well I am a second year Comm and arts student majoring in comm and politics. my favorite website is www.hotmail.com i haven't change my address in years and it is nice to still recieve emails from all my old school friends and from my friends all over the world.

Hello out there!

2006-08-14T13:15:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone, it's Sally here, just posting an introductory message! My favourite website is Seiraline. It is a resource website created to provide links to female lead resources, it's pretty new but i love it.

welcome

2006-08-10T21:24:00.000+08:00

This is the weblog for the Thursday tutorial at 11am for the UWA 2006 unit Self.net: identity in the digital age.
If you're not doing the weblog workshop in the Mac Studio ensure you pick up a copy of the Blogging Guide anyway as it has listed all the required posts you need to make during this semester. It's available on WebCT or in the English corridor of the Arts building.
happy posting,
Alison