Jairedkeith's Blog

jairedkeith — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:41:50 +0000

There is no real solution to stopping internet piracy and copyright infringement. Technological changes introduce ever-changing avenues to downloading illegal music.

Two Major Cases:

1.) Napster

2.) Grokster and StreamCast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiokrHz9XQQ (woman fined 1.9 million dollars) whoa man!

Modern day examples of illegal downloading.

1.) BitTorrent sites

2.) foreign peer to peer file-sharing

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2008/04/only-42-of-musi.html (pie chart of music downloading)

Last Blog Post!!! Whoa hoo-just kidding professor Middleton.

jairedkeith — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:31:20 +0000

Of all three of the essays that I have written in class this semester, first and foremost I am most interested in the digital self essay. Namely, this is because this essay allowed my to vent about the “beef” I have with the Six Flags Corporation. Jaired v. Six Flags – showdown! Shortly followed by that I am also still very interested in my researched essay on illegal music downloading and copyright infringement. While writing this I felt as though I was sipping water from a fire hydrant. There was a great abundance of information available. And this is also a topic that many people (especially in my generation) can relate to.

The essay that most showcases my talents and progress as a writer is most definitely my digital self essay. In this essay I was able to relate my experiences with Six Flags to a parable. Even though it is clear that I am certainly not the most talented of writers, I do think that I have a knack for drawing good comparisons and connecting the dots. Also, this essay was hard at first for me to write. And it took a while to finally get the “jitters” out. But when I did things seemed to go smoothly. This essay truly gave me great insight into what it means to revise and edit. And in this way, this essay is the best for showing my progress as a writer.

Of my last two essays, the essay on copyright infringement includes the most required material. In order to complete this, I would need to add a works cited page as well as make my argument just a little more clear cut.

Workshop Reflection

jairedkeith — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:34:02 +0000

When I first came into class today I thought that my best topic for the researched essay was internet piracy and its moral implications. In fact to be quite honest, I was dead set on this topic because I found that writing on the other two topics (which were on radiohead and Obamas Twitter account) were a lot like beating my head on a cold, hard desk. However after the workshop today I see that there is some potential in the other two topics and that I shouldn’t label them out as a lost cause yet. I think that perhaps the reason why I had such a hard time writing was because I mistakenly believed that all of the topics had to be connected to the digital world somehow. Of course after reading other peoples papers I realize this not to be the case.

The most useful comments that I received were basic questions. I feel like I failed to address clearly some of the basic questions. Questions such as how, who, and why? Overall, my writing wasn’t very good today and it doesn’t take a genius to see that I need quite a bit of revision in my writing.

Two things that I found to be the most intriguing

The Book Stops Here

jairedkeith — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:57:58 +0000

In his essay The Book Stops Here, Daniel H. Pink strikes up an interesting conversation with his reader. He discuses the relevance of a very prominent informational web site in modern society known as Wikipedia. He asserts that Wikipedia is no ordinary encyclopedia, in fact the author states that it is quite odd in comparison to other renown encyclopedias. And this, is exactly the reason why the website seems to stir up so much controversy. Because it is unlike anything the world has ever seen. Wikipedia is risky. This is exactly the reason why I choose to write on this article. Namely because I myself have seen firsthand the contention this website causes.

So what is Wikipedia? Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that relies on ordinary people, and not respected authorities to publish academic articles. Herein lies the criticism. So essentially, anybody that can breath and type simultaneously edit and publish articles. Even someone who has absolutely no idea about what they speak about.

In order to stress this point, Daniel H. Pink gives his readers two examples of ordinary citizens claiming to have authority on their area of expertise. He cites Einar Kvaran – a fifty six year old male currently residing in a trailer in New Mexico and Lord Emsworth, who is actually a teenager from New Jersey. These examples perhaps provide the best piece of evidence in this article that support the authors point. Precisely that, although at times wikipedia is seemingly just as accurate as an other encyclopedia, it is in fact still risky in the academic world. Although he himself predicts them to be useful sources for the near future.

This essay made me reconsider the website wikipedia. It comforts me and at the same time discomforts me about the accuracy of the information I read about on wikipedia. Surprisingly enough though, I can’t help but find myself disagreeing with the author about wikipedia eventually being considered a credible academic source. In my mind, there has to be objective criteria for legitimate research. And until wikipedia has some sort of standard of credibility besides relying on the good faith of it’s users, it will not be accredited by the scholarly community.

Politics and The participatory Web examined

jairedkeith — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:59:51 +0000

I choose to analyze the article Politics and The Participatory Web because this article reflects a growing concern in the United States system of democracy. Namely, how it is that social networking and the internet is going to effect the election process. The author, Jonathan Kruger asserts that the internet is serving as a tool to spark interest and generate curiosity about the campaigning process.

Although he used many examples to support his thesis, perhaps the most convincing of these illustrations was when he referenced a facebook site that strived to end Hillary Clinton’s political ambition. This article was convincing because it proves that younger adults and America’s youth are in fact getting involved in the election process via internet. This example was convincing because I could relate to it. I have seen firsthand numerous political facebook groups and many of my friends are involved in these groups.

This essay makes me reconsider the validity of political information that I read about via internet. It forces me to be honest with my self and ask the question, is what I am reading based on the facts? There is a lot of bad information on the internet and certainly there is a lot of bad political information.

David Foster Wallace “consider the lobster”

jairedkeith — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:39:22 +0000

While reading in class today the renown essay “Consider the Lobster” by author David Foster wallace, I noticed quite a bit of detail within the text that served to distinguish this essay from some of the many other essays that I have read in the past. In fact to be quite honest, this essay was very different from anything that I’ve ever read before. Of course – I still think that reading some of the specifics that the author presents felt a lot like beating a dead horse, but over all the essay was well written and I learned a lot.

To be continued…

communities

jairedkeith — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:53:37 +0000

Some of the many sub cultures and groups within the american culture that I belong to are musicians, students, teenagers, sons, americans, Christians, people with toms shoes, concert enthusiasts, coffee lovers, exploratory students, St. Rose class of 2013, and Coldplay fans. Two of these communities that I find to be particularity interesting are the Coldplay fans and the toms shoes group.

What is interesting to note about people who listen to Coldplay is that they are people who come in a variety of shapes and sizes as well as many different backgrounds. And although they are so different, their love of the band is what unites them. Typically they are not you’re hard rockers or into rap music. But rather they are in the medium of soft rock. They are usually mellow, and easy to get along with.

Toms shoes is a shoe company that gives away a pair of shoes to a child in need every time a pair of shoes is purchases. So, essentially when you buy a pair of toms shoes you are buying two pairs one for yourself and one for charity. People who buy these are usually motivated out of a deep sense of compassion and a desire to make the world a better place. These people are the wave of the future. It used to be that the consumer would only ask the question, how is this product good for me? However now we are starting to the consumer ask another question – how is this product good for the world? And this is exactly the sort of question ghat those who buy toms shoes are beginning to ask.

The species of my papers

jairedkeith — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:43:44 +0000

So, well as far as the evolution is of my paper is concerned I would have you know that it felt less like evolution and a lot more like creating three different, distinct species of papers. Granted, there were key elements and ideas that remained the same in each. However, one thing that struck me as odd was that each time I sat down to write a new piece, I would end up with an almost entirely new format, examples, and general plan of attack. The multiple drafts process really aided the growth of my paper. Starting out was very difficult and I had a terrible case of writers block. But once I broke through the barrier of writing the first draft things just started to flow easier from out of my head and onto the page.

One of the strategies that other writers used that particularly caught my eye was the use of good quotation. Quotations are an excellent way to express an idea in a clear and concise way. Especially if the person you are quoting, seems to express himself or herself better than you. During my essay I started out with an allegory. Although the allegory worked well for me, a quotation would also have sufficed to assist the same purpose. I suppose that in this respect, writing can be a lot like choosing tools from a shed to work with . One can pick from a variety of instruments to work with such as hammers, plowshares, screws, and sea saws. All of the tools are helpful, however it is a matter of personal preference and how you want to do about constructing whatever it is you are building.

Themes and Readings

jairedkeith — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:53:15 +0000

Although at times it is tempting to think that social networking is all fun and games, the reality of the situation is simply that it is not. In fact, often, it can be quite the opposite. Like a cunning wolf hidden in sheep’s clothing, what you post on your facebook or myspace, could very well come back to haunt you. And this is one idea that has been beautifully illustrated by the authors during the readings in class today. In the words of Alan Finder (author of “When a Risque Online Persona Undermines a Chance for a Job”) – “A Facebook page created by a college student meant primarily for his or her immediate friends, or for other young people online from the same school or with similar interests, can potentially be accessed by anyone on the Web, and the information accessed can include whatever pictures or self descriptions are added to the page.” The things that you post on your social networking site are no longer yours! essentially you are putting your private life into the hands of fate. And fate has no regard for who will look into your information. So in short, don’t post anything on the Net that your ashamed of. You just don’t know who is going to view what you put up. In fact, it is becoming rather commonplace for school and employers to make final decisions based upon the information that which you have posted online. Scary right?

The fact that employers and major universities are viewing social networking sights and making decision based upon the information that the potential employee or student has posted is truly overwhelming. Regrettably however, this isn’t the only worry in the world you should have while on your myspace. In the article “Meet My 5,000 New Best Pals” by Janet Kornblum the point is largely stressed that who you associate more with online could affect and possibly hurt those you are friends online with. To quote Amanda Peters, “Some people get really anal about it. They’re like ‘I’m on you’re Top 8, but why am I the eighth person? Like how come I’m not N0. 2?” By quoting Amanda in her article, I think author Janet was trying to show there is great potential for social hazard on Faebook and Myspace, And that many of the friends that you make are purely superficial and could thus be misinterpreted by many.

These two themes are both ideas that could be incorporated into an essay. They actually both tie into each other. Companies and schools are viewing your myspace and facebook pages. But how are they viewing them? More often than not they are allowing a colleague to befriend you so that they have access to your page. They do this because they know that most of the friendships that you make are superficial and that most of those you befriend you don’t really know. These two problems seem to assist each other very well.

My thoughts on the readings

jairedkeith — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:55:06 +0000

Ok… So I’m not so sure about the rest of you, but the story about the 15 year old boy posing as a lawyer made me a bit uneasy. Not because he was harming anyone or getting others into trouble, but rather because people actually believed him and were taking his legal advice. How much more gullible can you be? If the words ” I am not accredited by the State Bar Association yet to practice law” don’t start to ring a bell, then I’m just not sure what would. This story just further reiterates the fact of how much people neglect to question information on the web. And although I may sound like a harsh critique right now, I do acknowledge that, being the avid Wikipedia and internet surfer that I am , I too am guilty of this sort of internet “blind faith”. It’s funny how the net (if you want it to be) can serve to act as a social mask that can conceal your true identity. One quote from the reading that illustrates this fact in much better light is this – “When our identities are constructed completely through writing, how bound are we to the parts of identity most people have assumed the were born with, aspects such as gender, ethnicity, race, and age” After all, there are no boundaries or limitations on the web. Only as far as you are willing to go. Theoretically, one could be anything one wants to be for there is nothing holding oneself back. Using this line of reasoning, it would not be unreasonable to make parallel connections to shows like Dateline that work to expose sexual predators who often times pose as something there not by using the internet and social networking. However on the other hand, despite all of the negative association we give to it, this “Pop Identity” that many have adapted, could in certain instances prove to be a good thing. After all, often times it forces us to see past someone’s aesthetic beauty, age gender or even credentials and look directly into their human character. And this I think is exactly the type of philosophy that renown author and poet, Langston Hughes, was tapping into when he wrote the poem Theme for English B. By posing as a 22 year old college student, he successfully transported his audience into seeing the world in a much different point of view than that which they were used to. This is just absolutely riveting! What a useful tool in writing! If you can’t make somebody see things your way, then show them the same thing, but through another person eyes. After all, isn’t this exactly what true writing is about? Communicating in such a way that coerces others to see things from your perspective for a bit? When Hughes writes, “Let that page come out of you-Then it will be true.” he is absolutely correct. It didn’t matter that Langston Hughes was no longer writing from his own perspective because what he wrote was honest and he delivered it with vigor and ambition. And reading this poem further demonstrates to me, that when writing, it doesn’t so much matter who you are writing as or whom your supposed to be, but rather what you are writing about and how much integrity and truth is in your writing.