There has been a lot of talk about the recent hacking activity that has plagued many large corporations, governments, and individuals. The group claiming responsibility for these undertakings is a group called Anonymous.  The group is not a typical hierarchical organization, but a group of ‘equals’ that is attempting to end corruption around the globe through transparency. Recently, they have exposed corporations such as Startfor, and have set up platforms for the Iranian people to criticize their government safely.  I give these two examples to display the depth of their activity, but this comes nowhere near the entirety of their feats.  They have worked with groups such as WikiLeaks, and have been involved with grass roots movements such as Occupy Wall Street.

Many people are quick to condemn Anonymous, but we should give the group another look.  In the past, some governments and big money have been able to move in silence without fear of retribution for their bad deeds.  Information was kept on paper work, and as long as that paper remained in a vault or burnt, the data remained completely hidden from the public.  The media has reported on many incidents, but the reporting has been slanted in order to satisfy their political views and supporters.  Many incidents have been kept behind a veil, and brushed aside as “conspiracy theories” or mere rumors.

Today, we have computers and the internet.  Computers have made things a lot easier.  People can now write, edit, save and reproduce vast amounts of information.  That information can now be sent anywhere almost intently because of the internet.  However, there is a drawback.  Information that is stored on a computer and connected to the internet is accessible.  The information might be protected, but like any defense there is a weakness.

Anonymous happens to be a group that is extremely good at finding these weaknesses and exposing the information that is being protected.  Now, this is where people begin finding problems with Anonymous.   The groups that anonymous targets are usually organizations that are trying to keep ‘sensitive’ information hidden.  Therefore, the illegal means that Anonymous uses in order to acquire their ends usually stirs up a lot of attention and causes a lot of people to hate them.  However, it also causes a lot of people to love Anonymous, because they are exposing knowledge and revealing the truth about they invest and trust in.

Some people hate them, and some people love Anonymous;  just as, some people hate transparency, and some people love it.   We are now able to see behind veils that were once almost impenetrable, and the inner workings of government and corporate organizations are being exposed like the inner working of a grandfather clock.

I often take for granted the amount of free speech I posses, which is guaranteed by the United States Constitution.  Our media within the country might, or tends to be (however you want to look at it), tainted.  However, we have alternative media sources such as: twitter, livestream, blogs, and etc.  We are able to read these sources, and we are also able to contribute to these sources without fear of repercussions (for the most part).

Part Two of Doctorow’s book For The Win allowed me to imagine the complications of overseas protesting.  A character within his book named Nor, and nicknamed Big Sister, attempts to change the status quo.  Her textile factory in Singapore receives a large request, but the bosses refuse to give the employees a bonus despite the extra money flowing into the company.  Therefore, Nor decides that she has had enough, and begins to demand better treatment by standing on table during work, and verbally slamming the corporate personnel of the company.  She feared retribution, but the other woman rallied alongside her and protected her.  The book transition quickly to a horrible display of police force against woman fighting for their rights.  They are gassed, and repressed.  The factory women’s union, Mute, attempts to help them.  However, their attempts to receive more pay are futile, because the factory shuts down and moves to Indonesia.  Furthermore, the women in charge of organizing the protest through the union are sought out and beaten horribly by the factories police.

The images brought forth by Doctorow are unsettling.  Similar events occur throughout the world, even though the events within the book are fiction.  We see oppressive tactics performed by government officials around the world when people take to the street and protest for their rights.  It is currently happening.  We only have to turn on the news, and we see protest and violent consequences to that protesting all around the globe.  From the Arab World to Europe, to Asia, to Latin America, and even here in the United States.

Today there are Occupy Wall Street protest and actions taking place all around the United States.  The Occupiers have occupied space legally, mostly, have continued to protest in the streets, and make noise for their cause, which is quite similar to Nor’s cause within For the Win.  We are quick to denounce leaders in other countries for their oppressive tactics.  However, when are we going to wake up and begin to oppose the unjust treatment of our fellow citizen?  Check out this video, and see what happens for yourself…

Creating a podcast has been very difficult for me, to say the least.  It has been difficult on many different levels: finding relevant data, collaborators, creating the site, and editing.

I attempted to cover the Occupy Wall Street movement in Los Angeles, and had a hard time finding sources that covered the entire movement.  There were newspaper articles that covered specific important dates, but left the day-to-day Occupy grind out of the picture.  Therefore, I used the OWS LA calender (which was accurate and detailed) to make a detailed list of the occupy protest in and around the downtown Los Angeles area. Furthermore, I highlighted specific important dates in order to let my readers see the OWS LA progress.

Finding people to interview was not a problem while I was at the OWS LA site.  However, trying to contact someone of authority to interview was very difficult, because the group does not have an authority and renders people equal.  Therefore, I had to change my vocabulary and ask “Who is an avid organizer?” I then got some answers, but getting a hold of people was very tough.

Creating the website to host my podcast was difficult for two reasons: uploading the content and getting the content to play.  I used GarageBand to create my project.  The program saves the information as an .aac, which cannot be uploaded (as far as I know) to a website.  However, I found that that GarageBand has a built in MP3 encoder, and I converted my project easily to that format.  Once it was MP3 I had to find a MP3 player to embed in the site, and play the information.  I created my own HTML player in DreamWeaver at first, but then opted to listen to one of my peers, and I embedded a Yahoo player within my site that looks and works better.

Editing is just editing.  Editing thirty minutes of media took hours.  I guess that’s just something that comes with the trade.

Walking around the downtown OWSLA site was interesting.  I love Los Angeles, so I enjoyed being in the city.  I met a lot of people, and had some good conversations.  The only issue is that I used a poor recording device, and the most important information I gathered was useless.  I was very disappointing that my first attempt to gather information was a waste, but at least I get to go back.  Maybe I’ll see and learn something that I didn’t see before, and have even better content for my podcast.

Doctorow’s book For the Win gives an insightful look into the world of modern gaming.  Throughout the book the reader is thrown into a whole world of World of Warcraft jargon, and the techniques behind winning/leveling up in the game.  The first part of the book includes a story about an American child who wants to level up in within the game, but cannot do it on his own.  Therefore, he contracts “raiders” to help him level up, and achieve a higher rank within the game.  However, those are the technical aspect of the game.  The gaming side of the book is very interesting and the focus of the book, but I saw something else within the text that was quite interesting and, at face value, amazing.

There is a conversation as follows within the game:

“You’re not in China, are you?” the gweilo asked.

“Not exactly,” he said, looking out the window at the sky over Orange County, the most boring ZIP code in California.

“Where are you guys?”

“They’re in China. Where I live, you can see the Disneyland fireworks show every night.”

“Goddamn,” the gweilo said. “Ain’t you got better things to do than help some idiot level up in the middle of the night?”

“I guess I don’t,” he said. Mixed in behind were the guys laughing and catcalling in Chinese on their channel. He grinned to hear them.

“I mean, hell, I can see why someone in China’d do a crappy job for a rotten 75 bucks, but if you’re in America, dude, you should have some pride, get some real work!”

“And why would someone in China want to do a crappy job?” The guys were listening in now. They didn’t have great English, but they spoke enough to get by.

“You know, it’s China. There’s billions of ’em. Poor as dirt and ignorant. I don’t blame ’em. You can’t blame ’em. It’s not their fault. But hell, once you get out of China and get to America, you should act like an American. We don’t do that kind of work.”

“What makes you think I ‘got out of China’?”

“Didn’t you?”

“I was born here. My parents were born here. Their parents were born here. Their parents came here from Russia.”

“I didn’t know they had Chinese in Russia.”

Wei-Dong laughed. “I’m not Chinese, dude.”

“You aren’t? Well, goddamn then, I’m sorry. I figured you were. What are you, then, the boss or something?”

This segment of the book is quite remarkable because it displays an instance of cross cultural contact caused by the gaming world.  Previous to the internet, and gaming, it is quite improbable that children had the ability to communicate globally quite so easily.  Furthermore, the game offers a middle ground of conversation, but also allows each of the children to view the others position and view of the world.

I myself have been an avid player of Star Craft, which is a relative game of World of War Craft.  While playing I have met people from all around the globe, and have been a witness to cross-cultural contact within the gaming world.  I guess, in a way, it has made feel a closer connection or understanding of other people living around globe.  I’ve also been the subject of heavy anti-American criticism, which made me laugh, but also made me think of America in different perspective.

The global gaming arena is an interesting new field in the human experience.  I wonder how far it will go to

People are always questioning what art is and what it is not.  Gaming has become a new source of debate; is game making an art? The article Persuasive Games: The Proceduralist Style by Ian Bogost answers this question.  Bogost gives a brief description of the major art ‘eras’ through history, which gives us the context of his argument.  Basically, he displays the erratic, defiant, and unpredictable nature of art throughout its history. He continues his argument by displaying the functions of the different styles of games, how they perform, the question the games arise, how people interact with games, etc.  Overall, he makes a solid case for his belief that gaming is an art due to its overall function.

Human’s have a general tendency to shy-away from change and the new frontiers of concepts–especially the concept of art.  This inability to accept new forms/styles/mediums as art has been a reoccurring habit of humanity as Bogost begins to display.  Of course, there is a need to draw a line somewhere.  We can’t just say that that any object is art. Or can we? What the concept of art incorporates, and what it does not, is a tricky question to say the least.

Gaming is not the only new art frontier that has been having trouble acquiring the title of ‘art’ in recent times.  Graffiti has also encountered the same issues.  It seems that certain people have trouble seeing art in certain forms of self-expression, because they do not understand the media or are culturally opposed it.

I downloaded the Second Life program and created an avatar to roam the virtual world of SL.  I visited an Irish pub, an island celebrating Mardi Gras, and a trance dance floor called Zapp.  At the Irish Pub I hung out at the bar and watched the other avatars “drink” their “drinks”.  I edited my profile, which let the SL world know that I am a student at Santa Clara University.  I named my avatar “HungryPandaMonk”, because the avatar is a panda and I couldn’t find him any food that he could eat.  Therefore, I left the bar and transported my panda self to a beach island.  There I had conversations with a few strangers and felt strange.  They were from all over the world including: Mexico, Costa Rica, London, the Mid West in the United States, and somewhere in Asia (I couldn’t read the chat writing).  Well, the various ethnicities I encountered there did not make me feel awkward, but the conversation did or I guess what was actually going on within SL.  I could see all the other avatars roaming the island, sitting on beach chairs, flying, and what not, but I couldn’t help but imagine all of the people sitting behind their computer screens in a room having their social-lives entertained by playing the SL game. I wondered if the SL players ever got out of their homes and attempted to communicate with people outside of their SL lives.  I wondered what purposes brought these people to play the game and socialize in virtual reality.  Do they have socialization issues? Are they just bored? Do they have controlling parents/ or partners? Are they afraid to step out of their homes? etc… Well, I know I may never know the truth, and I am sure that people sign into SL for various reasons.  I asked people in SL why they enjoyed SL, and all of their answers seemed the same: “To meet people” or “Because I’m bored” or “It’s fun.”  I guess, that’s the reason why people go out in reality also.  I then transported myself to a trance dance floor where I taught my panda to dance.  People kept on commenting in the public chat: “I’m having so much fun!”, “Trance Rules”, and the such.  SL is the place, I guess, if you can’t get out of the house.  However, I prefer to dance to trance in the real world.

I browsed the Google search engine in order to find out how to make a “good” podcast.  I clicked on a couple links, and read a few articles/blogs.  Most of what I read was common sense, such as “know your topic”, and edit out the “awkward pauses.”  However, as most information, the common sense aspect from the tips I read on pod-casting was obvious after I read it, but I doubt I would have recognized all of the aspects of a good podcast shared on the various sites.  Therefore, reading these sites was essential in order to flesh out the obvious-but-not-so-obvious techniques of good pod-casting.  Furthermore, I decided to create my own (shortened) list of essential pod-casting techniques/tips/information gathered from the sites I visited.

1. Know the information you wish to cover.

2. Plan and script the podcast ahead of time.

3. Find a unique way to podcast that sets the podcast out from the rest.

4. Stay consistent.  Broadcast the podcast on a set schedule.

5. Try to stay on a specific subject, or create a timeline, in order to cut confusion and keep the audiences’ attention.

6. Acquire software that allows an editor to edit the sound and/or video.

7. Acquire a good mic and/or camera in order to have clean audio/video for the audience.

8. Acquire software, such as Skype, that allows for video conferencing; and software that allows for screen recording in order to record and edit the conference.

9. Put the Podcast on iTunes, and/or, make it easy to find in a search engine by giving it a unique name and logo.

10. Archive the work and make sure the new podcasts stay relevant.

This is an over all list of tips I gathered from multiple sites. If you wish to visit those sites, the links are below:

http://mashable.com/2011/03/25/podcasting-tips/

http://www.feedforall.com/podcasting-tips.htm

http://www.goinvo.com/practical-tips-for-producing-a-professional-podcast/

Henry Jenkins’ is a professor at U.S.C. and author of many books concerning popular culture and the media.  He wrote an article five years ago that predicted the cultural effects that YouTube has had on our society, and the way it continues affecting our world today.  Jenkins proposed nine important propositions within his article.  However, I will only discuss one of these propositions (click on the article link above if you wish to view Jenkins’ entire article).

The fifth proposition within Jenkin’s article states:

YouTube operates, alongside Flickr, as an important site for citizen journalists, taking advantage of a world where most people have cameras embedded in their cellphones which they carry with them everywhere they go. We can see many examples of stories or images in the past year which would not have gotten media attention if someone hadn’t thought to record them as they unfolded using readily accessible recording equiptment: George Allen’s “macaca” comments, the tazering incident in the UCLA library, Michael Richards’s racist outburst in the nightclub, even the footage of Sadam Hussein’s execution, are a product of this powerful mixture of mobile technology and digital distribution (Jenkins 2012).

This proposition is a clear fact today.  Stories that would not have had or could not have had media attention in the past are now making the Internets’ headlines in 2012.  Now the global community has access to a wider variety of news sources than ever before.  We can witness an event through the lens of a citizen on the ground as the situation unfolds.  Furthermore, this broadcast is not tainted by the political ideological views of powerful traditional media sources.  Recently, we have been able to witness the energy of the Egyptian people marching for their freedom from within the crowd, the terror and tragedy of the Costa Concordia as survivors abandon ship, and police raids on Occupy Wall Street from the view point of the protestors etc.  The media now has a harder time attempting to color an event in accordance with their interest.  A perfect example would be the police raids on the Occupy movement around the world, and especially here in the United States.  Certain traditional-news media groups may attempt to continue their revisions of history, but YouTube has provided the conscious viewer the means in which to criticize the coverage propagated by corporate owned media, and publish and make their criticism accessible for the global internet community.  The following video displays a horrifying display of police brutality carried out on a photojournalist.  The commentator at channel 5 says that the photojournalist “fell”.  YouTube viewers had a different view, and many agreed that the photojournalist was pushed by police.  Take a look for yourself, and see what you think.

Photojournalist Tyson Zoltan Heder beaten and detained by LAPD at Occupy Los Angeles

Danah Boyd has an impressive background in terms of the places she has worked and the amount of research she has been able to put out.  Her blog and publications can be found at her site http://www.danah.org/ .  Recently, I read her article White Flight in Networked Publics? How Race and Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace and Facebook.  Having grown up in suburbia/urban Los Angeles,  the article struck true on a number of issues. Danah explains the exodus from MySpace to Facebook, and the race/class issues implied by the migration.   She displays and describes how MySpace had first been popular for all teens, and why the first youth began to leave the site and emigrate to Facebook.  What these teens left behind was a social map of the segregation that was in plain-sight at their high schools.  I remember my personal high school experience.  Mexicans would kick it at the M (for Mexican) wing.   The White’s would kick it on “the hill”.  The African-American’s at the gym.  The Asians in the own wing etc. etc.  Being Latino, I was one of the last to migrate to Facebook, and only migrated to the site because one of my mentors had urged me to claiming that MySpace was for “cholos and cholas”.  I remember my White friends telling me about Facebook, but never really put any thought into leaving MySpace until an authority figure in my life asked me to.  Today I have neither a Facebook or a MySpace, and my life has been much better because I can now focus on my studies (Facebook was my preferred tool of procrastination). However, after reading this article, I also thought about my current University experience and wondered if it has felt racially segregated.  Yes and no.  However, for the truth, all one has to do is to walk into Benson (Cafeteria) and take into account “who kicks-it with who”, or look at Facebook and see who talks to who.  Peers, what do you think about our campus?

Andrew Keen wrote his book The Cult of the Amateur in response to the growing user-generated media that we can find on the web today. I didn’t read the entire book because the Introduction was enough for me.  Keen’s idea of the internet is a place where the “mob rules”, and equates this “amateur” mob of humans that generate information on the web as “monkeys” on a type writer.  I thank Mr Keen because I am one of those amateurs, and I guess I’ll accept his “monkey” title.  Here is a Monkey’s response.

Mr Keen claims that there is abundance of “political commentary, to unseemly home videos, to embarrassingly amateurish music, to unreadable poems, reviews, essays, and novels (Keen 2007),” on the internet. Furthermore, Keen claims that this information might confuse the masses somehow.  Poor Mr Keen, it seems like he has read a lot of monkey generated information!  Too bad Mr Keen doesn’t know how to browse the internet like the rest of us “monkeys”.  Mr Keen is doomed to read and pay attention to every source of information he comes across!  Most of today’s mob knows the difference between good and bad information, and what is purely entertainment.  If Keen thinks that people will be fooled and captivated by “false/faulty/useless” information on the Internet, well, there is a lot of “false/faulty/useless” information in print, TV, or the radio also.  We can find those magazines in most local grocery stores that lie about celebrity break ups and claim that their source was abducted by aliens; or turn on MTV to watch Jersey Shore (no offense, I know it’s fun to watch sometimes) and be captivated by the raw drama; or turn on the radio and hear some radio host or hostess rant and rave about their political opinion without facts to back them up.

So what’s the issue with the internet?

The problem lies with the viewer, not the internet. The above issue Mr Keen finds with internet existed prior to the internet. People are going to believe what they want to believe.  Maybe Mr Keen’s focus should be to attempt to implement some form of awareness about the internet and/or what sources to trust and not to trust.  I’m sure we’ll be able to understand this warning, since somehow us monkeys have evolved into being able to read, write, and use technology.

Mr Keen also claims that the internet is “flattening… culture… [and] blurring the lines between traditional audience and author, creator and consumer, expert and amateur (Keen 2007).”  This argument sounds amusing, but what is Mr Keen really trying to say here?  That there is some type of line between the professional and amateur.  Okay. Doesn’t that sill exist within the internet? Even in my “monkey” state I know that there are paid bloggers, internet reporters, and staff.  The internet didn’t mean the downfall of the “Best Sellers”, or our favorite music artist, actors, reporters, and political commentators.  People still read those sources on the internet that Mr Keen holds in such high esteem such as “CNN and BBC”(I wonder how Mr Keen even knows if his sources are even telling the truth? Or know who controls the media?).  Mr Keen is worried that the print-media has lost money, but that’s the price of living in a democratic-capitalistic society.  Well, those companies will just have to adapt in order survive as their predecessors in the industry did with the invention of the radio and television.   As for piracy, it will always exist, and we’ll just have to find just and democratic ways to check it.  Whatever, Jay Z, Beyonce, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Lady Gaga are still filthy rich despite the millions of times they’ve been pirated.

So what’s the issue with the internet?

Mr Keen argues that all these “monkeys” are not worth being heard.  As if we don’t have a soul such as his that wishes to reach out, be heard, and maybe be an inspiration, a comedian, consoled, or a source of change etc. as Mr Keen wishes to be.  He wants the “professionals” and corporations to be the only sources who can reach out to the masses. Sounds like Mr Keen is a bit of an Elitist.  I think Mr Keen’s true issue is that with all of this amateur work on the web, his amateur work doesn’t receive enough attention. He should be careful about who he offends since he does rely upon us “monkey” to put his book on the “Top Seller’s List”.  So far his book only has 131 responses on Amazon’s Web 2.0, and a majority of the reviews rate Mr Keen’s work poorly.  Sorry Mr Keen, maybe once you evolve into one of us “monkeys” you might receive a bit more attention.  Until then, I’ll teach you how to peel a banana.