Recently, NPR (National Public Radio) had a phone interview with author Andrew Keen in which he and NPR host John Ydstie discussed Keen’s new book “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture”.  It was interesting to read about how Keen believes Web 2.0 (which includes things like Google, Youtube, and Myspace) is ruining our culture by reducing the amount of cultural gatekeepers on the Web.  Cultural gatekeepers are those entities that decide what kind of information should be presented to the public on the web and by not having these entities in place, Keen argues that “all we have is opinion chaos,[and] a cacophony of amateurs” who “undermine the authority and expertise and professionalism of mainstream media.”  This is detrimental to our culture because it fails to provide a universally and ethically acceptable template for culture.  Furthermore, Keen argues against the notion that these trends are simply the first happenings of the downfall of capitalism and that we should let these things happen because they may in the end bring about something new and positive for our society.  Keen states that “we created this technology. We need to manage its consequences”, which could also be interpreted as Keen suggesting the internet be governed.  This notion is intriguing because of the recent news surrounding SOPA, legislation that tries to directly govern the internet.  I think that the dichotomy of opinions on this matter are important.  That being said, I think social media sites like twitter and facebook have shown that the internet cannot be governed at all.  I believe, as I think many do, that the concept of the Internet is so immense at this moment, that to try and impose rules and regulations upon it would be ineffective.  I believe that we need to simply watch the transformation of the Web and try and guide it and those using it, toward an ethical and culturally positive avenue.

Read the Podcast Transcript here…

Author David Pogue of the New York Times posted an article having to do with defining what internet culture actually is.  Pogue tweeted one day that he had no idea what being “RickRolled” meant.  RickRolled refers to an internet prank by which people who are trying to watch a certain video on youtube or some other media, instead get redirected to a video of Rick Astley’s 1987 music video of “Never Gonna Give You Up”.  Pogue immediately received a number of tweets commenting on how behind the times he was by not knowing about RickRoll.  Pogue, in response, challenged his followers to come up with a list of the 100 most important web trends, videos, or ideas that anyone should know if they want to call themselves web savvy.  Most of the videos had to do with mean spirited humor, while others were centered around creatively witty episodes or funny animals.  What was so interesting to me personally after reading this article was that ok, we have this amazing technology called the Internet that allows us to stay interconnected from anywhere in the world.  That being said, the “Culture of the Internet” is composed of this?  The top 100 list for the internet savvy consumer is composed of a bunch of mean humor and animals joking around?  Don’t get me wrong, I love this stuff the same as the next person.  I’ve spent hours zoning through youtube looking at videos.  But it just seems like such a waste.  Or maybe this is only the beginning stages for the evolution of “Internet Culture”.  Something to think about.

Read the article here…

On Henry Jenkins webpage, titled “Confessions of an Aca-Fan”, Jenkins performed an interview with author Ted Striphas in which the two discussed the transformation of Barnes and Nobles over the years.  One of the main questions that Jenkins posed to Striphas was what is going to happen to the modern day brick and mortar bookstores now that services like Amazon are provided?  Striphas did not believe that he was capable of answering such questions, however he did elaborate on one of the downsides of having a bookstore online.  I few years ago, Amazon ended up deleting a number of pirated copies of George Orwell’s “1984” off of their customer’s Kindles.  Striphas compares this to the notion that a modern day bookstore can just come into your house and take back a book that you purchased legally.  It’s an interesting comparison because it calls into question the fact that all Kindles are linked back to Amazon, creating an enormous network of literature that Amazon has more or less full control over.  It seems that this is another example of privacy and convenience colliding on the Internet.  It will be interesting to see how the relationship between these two entities plays itself out in the future.

What was most interesting to me in today’s reading in Cory Doctorow’s novel, “For the Win”, was the organization of the gold farmer workers into a Union called the Webblies.  It was an interesting notion to contemplate because its one that I never actually thought of before.  Because the internet provides everyone with a means of interacting instantly, it would be the perfect medium for organizing a group of workers, like the way it is being employed in the novel.  Furthermore, it was fascinating that other unions were unable to see the potential in possibly utilizing such a network.  That being said, I understand that it would be hard to situate dye manufacturers with gold farmers in a union next to one another because of the preconceived notions about the two industries.  But I still think that Doctorow offers a very interesting take on the power of the internet as a means of organizing and bringing about social change.

Read “For the Win” here…

In terms of actually narrating my podcast at the Farmer’s Market, I felt a little awkward walking around talking to my recorder at first.  However, the beauty of that particular Market is that everyone is talking, interacting and listening to the music that it was easy to shrug off the self-consciousness and get in the flow of what I was trying to describe.  However, one of the things that I noticed when I came back and started editing my podcast was that there was a lot of background noise because it was so windy.  Learning how to fade out the background noise and introduce a song in order to obscure some of the interference was the hardest part of this project for me personally.

I actually really enjoyed working on this project because I have never actually made a podcast before.  Furthermore, writing the essay first and then going out to the Farmer’s Market after gave me another insight into the workings of the Market itself as it went on around me.

Listen to my Podcast here… Patrick’s Podcast on the Farmer’s Market

After reading Part 1 of Corey Doctorow’s “For the Win”, the story that interested me the most had to do with Mala and the game Zombie Mech.  In this particular story, Mala is a gifted girl who plays the online game Zombie Mech extremely well.   Mala is so good in fact, that a representative from Zombie Mech appears in the small game cafe where Mala plays and asks her to hunt “gold hoarders” in the game.  These gold hoarders accumulate a large amount of in game credits and then sell them to other players for actual money, thereby turning a profit.  Mala is therefore recruited to find these gold hoarders and destroy them and take their fortunes before they can sell them to potential buyers.

What’s so interesting with Doctorow’s writing is that when you are reading the stories, it’s easy to become immersed in the world of the game along with main character and forget that there is action continuing outside of the gameplay of the characters within the story.  So when the representative of Zombie Mech, Mr. Banerjee, appears and offers Mala a job, the clash of the real world and Mala’s game world is made all the more apparent.  What’s also interesting here, is that in virtual reality, Mala has created a means of making a viable income and supporting her family financially.  It’s amazing to me that we are at a point now where we can literally make money out of literally nothing.

I feel that it’s also important to recognize the kinds of relationships being built within this story.  Mala’s friends jokingly call her “General Robotwalla” because of her excellence in gameplay, however by the end of the story, these same friends are termed by Mala as her army and even salute her.  These relationships, that were created in a virtual reality have spilled over and taken root within real life interactions as well.

Read “For the Win” here…